Blurryfaces
by Eya Silvers
Summary: Amy pounds the table once with her fist. "He's on drugs." she declares loud enough for Allison nearby to turn her head.-"Scott McCall? On drugs?" laughs Todd. "He's like the nicest puppy anyone would wish to have."-"You really have a problem with dogs." points out Charlie. [or how Scott's pack's actions and choices impact on other people's lives]
1. Chapter one

_Heyyyy who's it going? I'm Tata 'ya, back for a new story that has nothing alike the other ones, except the fandom. It's always Teen Wolf, I'm obsessing over it since the third grade (hyperbole)._

 _This story is complicated. It's not Scott's, or Stiles's, Lydia's or anyone you know in canon's story. It's the story of minor characters you've never heard of and that sometimes appear on screen, such as Sydney (present in s4 and s5), the girl who talks to the duo Sciles in S01E01 who I named Charlie, and a few others. So basically 20% of the characters in this fic are my OCs, my first ever OCs that I love and cherish with all my heart. You are going here to learn about them, learn about their personality and their life and problems in Beacon Hills and how the McCall pack's decisions affect their owns._

 _Please don't back away if you're scared it might be too cliché and shit. It's not, I promise. I made a very long text explaining my character's beliefs and styles of clothes only for this fanfiction. Give it a try, please. I promise it's worth it._

 _Inspired by: Marvel's Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D, Danny Mahaelani's character and a tumblr post_

 _Disclaimer:_ _I don't own anything except my OCs, Charlie, Amy, Todd and a few not very important ones.  
_

 _Characters included:_ _every character, from the quator Sciles Allydia to the McCall pack in s5._

 _Ships:_ _every canon ship: Scallison, Allisaac, Stalia, Stydia, Dethan, Berica, Aidia, Jydia, Scira etc, plus a few others that don't affect canon. However I strongly believe, given many of interviews and the way the show is shot, that Stiles will end up with Lydia at the end. Don't hate me, that's my view, and not only because I kinda highkey ship this trash._

 _Warnings:_ _trigger warnings for depression and blood in the story (c'mon, it's Teen Wolf). Also I'm currently perfectioning my writing in English. I'm French, so warn me if a sentence is complete shit and/or you do not understand it._

 _Fic title:_ _yes, it does come from Twenty One Pilot's new album, but that's because it sums up perfectly the plot of this multi chapter fic._

 _Chapter title:_ _comes from Don't Threaten Me With a Good Time's P!ATD, because I'm a fan of the band and it's a great name for a prologue._

 _Also I'm a chatterbox so enjoy this prologue now! Leave your thoughts!_

* * *

 **Blurryfaces**

* * *

 _Chapter one_ _ **-**_ _I should probably introduce myself_

"Yo Charlie."

"Yup."

"I've been wondering."

"Mmh."

"I don't know why I didn't ask you sooner."

"Yeah."

"But I'm asking now so I guess we're even."

"Huh."

"Is your name short for Charlemagne?"

Charlie looks up from her book and stares at him.

"What's the name's gender?"

"Huh, I-"

"Who first wore this name?"

"Huh- a French king, right?"

"Is a king a queen?"

"Huh- no."

"I'm a queen. Therefore Charlie is no short for Charlemagne. Now can I go back to Shakespeare in peace?"

Stiles heavily sighs and takes his face between his hands, pressing his thumbs on his cheeks, he makes a duckface and rubs his temples so hard she thinks he'd leave there a red bruise.

"I don't see what's so interesting about Richard III."

"Then you don't know what living's like."

"You and I don't share the same definition of 'living'."

"Thank god."

"You're rude."

"I'm rude to everyone."

"That's fair. But you know it's not my fault we're partners for that presentation."

"I know, all the blame's on Mrs Ruy. Why aren't you partners with McCall though? Isn't he supposed to be your bestie?"

Stiles bangs his head on his desk table. Charlie squints her dark eyes at him, trying to understand his demeanor, but it remains a mystery to her and she's in his class since freshman year. So a year and soon a year and a half. Howecern she knows his face since he's had a crush on the Queen.

The hyperactive kid smashes his forehead once again on the innocent desk and stays like that with his nose flattened and his voice muffled.

"He's with Allison."

"Oh." Charlie doesn't know what else to say, so she just looks down at the book in her hands and contemplates its last sentence. 'My kingdom for a horse!' "Didn't she dump him?"

"She did, but they were partners before the dumping."

"Well I hope they can make up, they were a horrifyingly cute couple. Made me want to puke my brains out."

"Me too." he says as he rubs his forehead. His usually pale face is now very red. Charlie doesn't know if she should feel worried or not.

She turns a page and blinks with confusion during a few seconds before putting it down and stare into the distance.

"What? What is it?" Stiles asks immediately, his mouth slightly agape.

"I just realized that I finished the book." she lets out in a whisper as her world crumbles down all around her.

"Okay, but why does it look like you just caught the Reaper looking at you?"

She slowly turns her head to face him. "My life is pointless."

"Wh- first of all, no. Second of all, the hell?"

They aren't enough friends for her to grab him by the collar of his flannel and shake him like a tree but she does it with the power of her glare. "I finished the book and now I don't know what to do with my life anymore!"

Stiles looks down at the innocent-looking book and then looks up at her, not impressed in the slightest.

"Yeah, I too had this feeling when I completed my first Pokémon game."

She leans back on the desk chair and groans.

"You know, I haven't read the book yet." he continues, his long fingers flying over the keyboard of his laptop. "And we have to do a presentation about it for newt week."

"Read the book."

"Come on, we're partners! That's what we do, we help each other out!"

"I haven't seen you helping me much."

"Oh my god – who died and made you so bitter?"

She abruptly frowns at him and purses her lips. "No one! I'm not bitter! Do you want me to talk about your desperate crush on Lydia bitchy Martin or will you shut up?"

He closes his mouth and shoots her a dirty look, but she doesn't care. They aren't friends, merely acquaintances, they're just English partners. They aren't here to gossip, they are here to work. And what Charlie really wants to do right now is finish this goddamn project and go home. "Okay." she lets out and he raises a surprised eyebrow at her. "Basically there's this fucker called Richard who's brother of the King, but who'd never be king because his bro already has kids. You following me?"

"Yeah."

"Good."

"Isn't Richard as ugly as Quasimodo?"

"Yeah, but he's also very ugly on the inside. This play wasn't written by a Romantic like Hugo."

"What a sufferable big-headed."

"True." she says, impressed by his knowledge. "So then the King dies by Richard's jealous hand, and one of his heirs take the throne obviously. But Richard always had this need in his guts, the need to be King and to be loved because he's always been rejected since his childhood even by his momma. Then, to shorten the story, he conspires behind the backs of literally everyone, kills his other brother, kills the kid King and the other kid, murders a lot of people and goes on the throne. Bla bla bla, Richmond isn't happy by Richard's reign, so the Civil War begins and Richard dies in battle, still hated by everyone."

"That was incredibly optimistic."

"You don't say. What are you typing down?"

"My thoughts on the play."

"Don't you think we should watch a stageplay first?" she argues.

"Please, you're a nerd. I'm sure you've already seen one."

His comment shuts her up and she watches him silently type on the keyboard.

Her phone suddenly vibrates in her pocket and she reaches for it. She scoffs.

"Good news?" he asks, his eyes still locked on Google docs on the screen.

"Amy got asked out for the former." Charlie smiles as she types her answer to the message of her excited best friend.

"Amy McGougal?"

"Yes."

"Who's the winner?"

"Shaun."

"Ugh."

Charlie shoots him a look over her Blackberry. "You got something against him?"

Stiles, seemingly feeling threatened, shrugs and winces at the same time. "No." he pretends awkwardly. "Absolutely nothing. I'm good. He just... kinda almost broke my nose in middle school, but otherwise, nope, I'm cool with it."

"He's changed." she says with a quick smile. "I hope." she adds without him hearing her.

"Oh, I'm sure of it." He directs the laptop towards her so she can see the screen better. "So for the first big part of our presentation, we're gonna talk about the plot of the play, then compare it with the historical facts. Maybe we could squeeze in a little biography about our beloved Shakespeare. The second part's gonna be about different stageplays, the choice of actors and set, and the third part will be about our point of view and our feelings toward the play. What do you think?"

She nods appreciatively. "I think it's great. We should maybe make it look like an interview."

"What, the last part?"

"Yeah. Like, we ask someone in class – your BFF if you want – to play the interviewer and we give them the questions we prepared so we can answer them. That way, it keeps the class focused on us, it's more interactive, it's less boring."

He types her ideas down. "You've got a great imagination."

She smiles and taps Richard III with the tip of her fingers. "I'm a good reader."

"So who are you going with?"

His sudden question disconcerts her. She plays with a strand of black curly hair that fell from her bun. "Going where?"

"The winter formal."

"No one."

She has meant it to be like she doesn't care, but apparently that isn't what Stiles has found.

"You must have someone!" he lets out, shocked.

"I'm sorry that I don't have hoards of guys falling at my feet!" she exclaims, rolling her eyes.

"Why do you always have to exaggerate what I say – what I meant was, don't you have a special someone?"

Charlie considers not answering him. After all, he's not her friend. He's a weird geeky hyperactive boy she often has class with, and she hates his buzz cut. She already has Amy and Todd as friends, and that's enough for her, thank you. He just happened to have taken the seat next to her that day they had to find a partner for this damn English presentation because McCall wanted to be near Argent.

But on an other thought, maybe she can open up to him a little. That's not going to kill her.

"I don't have a special someone." she says, almost regretting it as soon as the words leave her mouth.

"What? Everyone has a special someone!"

"Well what can I say? Life isn't a chick flick movie, Stiles, where the loner becomes suddenly appealing and gets along with the popular kid so they can make out and have babies and live happily ever after."

He leans back into his chair and looks down. "See, that wasn't what I was saying."

Now she regrets opening up to him. She closes her eyes for a moment, before getting up and picking her bag from the ground.

"What are you doing?"

"I'll send you my work by email."

"No- we have to do this together, this is a partner thing!"

He seems so betrayed that she almost hesitates for a second, but they're not friends. She takes Richard III and puts it in her schoolbag.

"We can do this by exchanging emails just as fine." she says before crossing the door.

"Charlie-"

This is not against him, not really. She's just not good with people. She's not good with partnership. She only likes the company of Amy and her books, she bears Todd and his dog, and has to live with her dad.

That's enough, really. Or so she tells herself.

Stepping out of the Stilinski house, she grabs her bike and hops on it, her bag precariously hanging on her shoulder. She doesn't look back.

She said email, not Skype. Apparently Stiles doesn't know the difference when he calls her this evening to apologize even though he doesn't seem to know what he's apologizing for.

* * *

"They look good together."

That's the first thing Amy says to her this morning.

Poor, relationship-deprived Amy. Charlie is half-happy she found a partner for the formal, half-jealous she found a partner for the formal. After all, if her best friend starts hanging with that Shaun more often, she gets to see her less.

She spares a look at McCall hunting for New Girl in the hallway, but New Girl ignores him even though it sounds painful for her to do so. Charlie nods. "They do."

"They just found each other so quickly... It's a shame they had to break up. I don't even get why they broke up in the first place."

"Well I always thought they got together way too fast... I mean, she arrived like, three months ago and she's already in his bed after two weeks, you gotta admit that's a little forward."

"Love can't wait, sweetie." Amy argues, grinning.

Charlie chuckles and finally founds her locker by the corner of the eye. She never seems to remember which one she chose in September.

Amy leans her red head on the locker next to Charlie's while her friend composes the secret code to open it.

"So how's it going with Shaun?" the black-skinned girl asks.

Amy loses her smile. "It's going." she says without much intention.

Charlie takes a notebook and puts her yellow safety jacket inside her locker before closing it and looking at Amy worryingly.

"What do you mean? I thought you liked him, you said yes to go with him to the formal..."

Amy fake-smiles at her slippers and her butt-length hair cover her pretty face.

"I said yes because he's the only boy that asked out me so far." she lets out, ashamed of herself.

Charlie contemplates her for a few seconds before deciding to pat her shoulder. "Maybe you could've waited. There's still a month before the formal and I'm sure there would've been an other dude who could've asked you."

"But it's done though." Amy says like her fate is settled, and that annoys Charlie. They aren't in drama class an this isn't a tragedy. "I'm sure I can come to like Shaun. I mean, he's nice looking."

"Looks aren't everything." Charlie whispers as she takes her hand and brings them to their first class of the day.

No one likes Mr Harris. The two girls are no exception. Charlie also hates this class because she sucks at Chemistry, but that's personal.

The window she's near to has been replaced, she noticed. The day after the death of the janitor, they had found it smashed, a puzzle of broken glass on the floor. A mountain lion killed during the parent-teacher meeting and now the janitor killed by a freaky animal that most likely had the rage. Charlie is glad she's not interested in hanging around the school at night.

"Can someone with an average IQ resume what last class was about? No need to raise your hand, Reyes."

The blonde girl keeps her head low. Charlie shoots daggers with her eyes.

"Cretin." mutters Amy next to her, low so Harris can't hear her with his bat ears.

Charlie nods as she stares at her copybook, not wanting the teacher's attention on her. She has already been noticed when she forgot to hand him a paper about ions, she doesn't want to mess up again.

"Mr Whittemore?"

Charlie almost rolls her eyes. Of course he had to choose his dearest student A.K.A the popular jock.

"We were beginning to study the cohesion of solids."

"Thank you. Now can someone come to the board. You had three exercises to do for today, I sure hope you did them, or else the repercussions on your near future could be disastrous."

Charlie bites her lower lip and discreetly slides over her copybook so Amy can cheat.

Sydney ends up coming to the board, not on free will though. She gives a correct answer to two of the questions and totally messes up the third, but at least she did right more than the half of it. Charlie uncrosses her fingers from under the table.

The next hour flies by without a problem so important it has to be brought up to the story. Oh yes, Stilinski does try to attract her attention by throwing a gum at her but he ends up getting warned by Harris, but that's it.

Normal day, normal friends, normal life.

Of course Charlie would love for something _weird_ , even _supernatural_ to happen to her. She won't deny it, everybody wishes that at some point in their life, whether to escape their boring fate of having a mundane job and two kids or to get away from the harsh reality. For her instance, it's the first one. She isn't proud of it but it's not like she would shout this fact in the streets either. Beacon Hills, California, is great. She has nothing against the town, except probably the rough weather in the summer. She likes to complain though, because in the summer she goes over to her brother's apartment in New York where it's less burning her already dark skin. She's ironically allergic to sunburns and Amy couldn't stop teasing her the day she found out. However the British's pale and freckled skin turns to red whenever the sun decides to show up in the sky, so the teasing was short. Charlie had asked her one day why her parents had thought this was a good idea to come to California if it meant getting a skin cancer at thirty, but Amy had let out a reasonable and logical answer: sharks. Her parents had yet to find one.

"It's not like he's going to ask me to shag him, right?" asks Amy, violently impaling her chicken dips with her fork.

"Of course not!" says Charlie. Then she adds in a tiny voice: "At least I hope not."

"I heard that."

"What a supernatural hearing! I'm impressed."

"Now you're rude."

"Oh. Sorry." Charlie drinks a long sip from the ridiculously small bottle of water of the school's canteen.

She raises her head when a familiar but unwelcome voice asks her if they can settle their plates here.

Lydia Martin stares down at her with what should be awarded best fake smile of the year. Her new friend stands beside her a little awkwardly and nods at them with an genuine beam. Charlie doesn't understand what New Girl is doing with them. She had asked to the duo Sciles how the hell was she already doing in their club and she remembers Stilinski replying that hot people herded together. New Girl is hot, that's true, but it's also not understandable. She doesn't seem stupid or fake like Lydia bitchy Martin, so why the hell hasn't she backed away from their popular group by now?

"So is that a yes or a yes?" asks Lydia, apparently impatient.

"Well we're not expecting anyone else except-" starts Charlie before she cuts her off.

"Amazing! Come on, Allison."

Charlie angrily pokes her beans while Ms Perfect and her nice puppy settle down next to them.

"Huh, we didn't agree." Amy says, frowning.

"You didn't say anything either." says Lydia like there's no need to discuss over this any longer. "Plus, I don't see your names on those chairs."

"Oh come on, we're not in middle school anymore." argues Amy. Charlie is too busy rolling her eyes at the ceiling.

Lydia pretends to be way above them so she can ignore the two girls. Allison sends Amy what seems to be an apologetic gaze. Charlie resists to the urge to roll her eyes once more. Really, it's her favorite hobby.

Todd appears and puts his plate next to Amy with such awkwardness he almost knocks over New Girl's bottle.

"Hey guys."

"Hey Todd." they reply in a chorus.

He leans over to them. "Why are you next to _her_?"

"The right question would be: 'why is she next to _us_?'" Charlie whispers back, eyeing Queen Bee laughing with her new bestie.

He stares at Lydia's hairdo of the day until it's becoming too suspicious. "Well crap. Here comes Ken Doll." he then says.

Charlie grunts as Whittemore sits next to Lydia and nods her like they aren't in love, which is kind of odd since they can usually always be found trying to eat up each other's mouths. Thankfully he doesn't look over their little group.

"Someone wants my fried chicken?" asks Todd to make the attention divert from the popular jocks.

"Yeah, give it to me. I need to chew something." Charlie replies. She steals his plate and hands over her leftover of beans.

"Why did you take chicken in the first place?" Amy asks, taking a bite of hers. "You know your vegetarian butt won't digest it."

"Because I knew I could trade with Charlie's beans." he replies with a wink.

"You gonna eat your apple?"

Charlie can't believe it at first but yes, her ears haven't betrayed her, Whittemore just spoke to Todd. She makes a mental note to write it down on her notebook: 'Today is blessed. Jackson Whittemore spoke to us. He must think we are finally worth his attention. I'm going to hang myself now.'

"What?" the boy stupidly says.

"Your apple. You're going to eat it or not?"

"Huh- not?"

"Can I have it?"

"Well, I'm not that big of a eater, so I guess-"

"Thanks."

That's the thing about Beacon High's favorite couple: they always need to be the center of attention. Just when it diverts away from them, just when Charlie, Amy and Todd quit talking about them, they need to feel like they're involved somehow. At least that's what Charlie thinks, but she's slightly paranoid.

Whittemore turns around on his chair and seems to look for something or someone, chewing loudly on the green apple. After a few seconds, he gets up, apparently thinking his meal is not worth being eaten by a superior entity like him, and disappears out of the three friend's sight.

"God I hate them." whispers Amy so Queen Bee and New Girl can't hear her.

"Yeah, we all envy them." Todd sighs, seeing through her disguise.

"I didn't say that!"

"That's the truth though."

"You and honesty..."

"Well at least someone is!"

"You're both insufferable." Charlie groans.

"You can say, miss Pessimism."

"Hey, don't talk to her like that!" Amy defends her friend.

"I'm not pessimistic, I'm being realistic, sir Toothpick." says Charlie, squinting her eyes at Todd.

"I'm sorry, I forgot you're a know-it-all."

"So, how's your dog?" brutally says Amy as she forces a smile and nudges the boy.

He seems to forget Charlie for a second. "Oh, he's fine! He caught a few fleas but Deaton gave me that cream-"

"I would like to publicly inform you that I sure as hell am not pessimistic." Charlie banters, crossing her arms under her chest.

"Oh my god, can you quit it?" Amy snaps. "We're trying to have a normal conversation here, without you trying to kill the mood for once!"

Charlie purses her lips but doesn't add anything.

"Thank you." finishes the British girl.

"I hate everything." says Charlie.

"Charlie!"

"Sorry." she says with a smirk. She totally planned it.

A violent crack echoes behind her and she turns around as does everyone else in the canteen.

Scott McCall, eyes flaring, knuckles white and hands clenched around his plate, has just broken it in two with sheer strength.

"Oh god." murmurs Amy, as shocked as Charlie is.

McCall's loyal sidekick A.K.A Stilinski pats awkwardly his friend's shoulder in an ineffective attempt to calm him down.

Whispers in the canteen slowly turn back to talking.

"His plate must have been already cracked." suggests Todd who is still watching worryingly McCall.

"He bloody broke that thing in half!" Amy half-whispers half-shouts. Her English accent gains strength whenever she's surprised or pissed.

"There's still no way he could have done that." Charlie says, a little shaken up. "Even if the plate was already cracked before, it's still almost impossible to completely break it."

"Yeah, McCall would have never been able to do that." Todd agrees.

"How do you know that?" asks Amy.

"Because I know him. I'm in the school team and he usually sucks at lacrosse."

"Usually?"

Todd looks at where his apple used to be on his plate before it got taken away by Whittemore. "Let's just say he's not a bench-warmer anymore. He's actually pretty good. Last week, he was promoted co-captain. You should've seen Jackson's face, it was hilarious!"

"I love McCall." decides Charlie on the spur of the moment.

"Didn't he have asthma or something?" Amy asks, clearly not understanding the whole story.

"I guess it disappeared." Todd shrugs. "One day he was dying doing one of Coach's suicide runs and the other he's prepared for the Olympics. The guy bugs me."

"Maybe he trained all summer." Amy wonders.

"Asthma just doesn't disappear over a summer." Charlie replies.

Amy pounds the table once with her fist. "He's on drugs." she declares loud enough for Allison nearby to turn her head.

"Scott McCall? On drugs?" laughs Todd. "He's like the nicest puppy anyone would wish to have."

"You really have a problem with dogs." points out Charlie.

"My problem is you." fights back Todd.

They both know they're just bantering for the fun of it, because Charlie is naturally extremely sarcastic and because Todd is naturally a good comeback-maker, only with his friends though. When they fight, and that happens a lot, it's just their way to declare their friendship. Amy knows that but she sometimes fears that it might turn into a mini war. That's why she always stands between the two like a human sandwich.

The bell rings as a warning for the first class of the afternoon. They realize that they totally forgot to pay attention to the world around them, as usual.

If SteroidsCall and Stilinski are nicknamed the Nerds and Martin and Whittemore the Beauty and the Beauty (shortened by 'BB', while Lydia's girl clique is the Bees, which results in interesting conversations in the hallways of Beacon High like 'chin up, beebee and the bees are coming our way'), Zeidi, McGougal and Wells are the Daydreamers. Charlie actually does like that nickname. It's better than being Superpuke like Jared.


	2. Chapter two

_I'm sorry if some of the move sports described here aren't specifically correct, because except for tennis and football, I don't know much.  
_

 _Chapter title: Warriors by Imagine Dragons_

* * *

 **Blurryfaces**

* * *

 _Chapter two – We are the warriors that built this town_

She blocks the punch that came to break her nose, twists the man's wrist. Her other hand with rigid fingers strikes like a scythe at the side of the opponent's neck, but before she has the time to bend with force his shoulder, he sweeps her legs with his feet as he's about to fall, and she face-plants on the mat. She lets out a groan, brings a hand to her nose that sends her painful vibes.

"Still not quick enough, McGougal. You could have easily overpowered me if you had just stopped thinking of what to do next."

She gets up, her nose between her fingers. "It's not easy!" she complained.

"Life ain't easy, miss. Stop thinking and act. Your muscles learn by themselves and it ain't up to the brain."

"Ugh, I think I'm bleeding."

"You'll be fine. Go grab a towel. Simmons, your turn."

Amy walks to the bleachers of the small gymnasium. She sits next to Charlie who hands her a tissue.

"I'm going to have ugly bruises on my shoulders for the formal." she says as she wipes her nose.

"You're the one that chose to train yourself." Charlie reasons her.

"I know." the redhead sighs, now wiping off the sweat off her brow. "One day I'll save all of your beautiful bums and you're going to deify me."

"Not gonna happen."

Todd comes back from the toilets with the water bottle he filled up, and hands it to Amy who gladly drinks from it. "We already praise you, if that's any consolation." he says, eyeing her red nose.

"Thank you." she whispers with a sniff. "You do know how to cheer me up."

"Glad to be your servant, majesty." he replies as he turns back to the fight in front of them between the Simmons kid and the Krav Maga Coach. The poor boy receives a nasty blow to the stomach, but hey, he signed for it. "That is exactly why I play lacrosse." he comments.

Charlie frowns. "Uh, isn't lacrosse a violent game?"

"It's less life-threatening than what you do. And I muscle my arms! And it taught me to have a nice aim!"

"But you don't know how to defend yourself in case of emergency!"

"Emergency!" he scoffs. "Nothing ever happens in this town."

Amy winces. "I beg to differ. Murder last week?"

"Mountain lion killed by Mr Argent?" Charlie adds, rubbing it in with a smirk.

"Girl cut in half by her own brother?"

"That last one is incorrect." Todd replies back. "Derek Hale was discharged a month ago. It was a wild animal that killed the girl."

"But still! Now I can defend myself from a wild animal, isn't that right Charlie?"

The dark-skinned girl opens her mouth and freezes for a second, wheels turning in her head. "Actually..." she begins. "You can fight back against a man, but an animal is usually smaller and quicker, and you're used to fight someone who's a head taller than you and has a fake gun aimed at your head..."

"Thank you so much, you're my best friend in the world." Amy says, tensed.

"What about me?" Todd asks.

Amy gets up. "I hate you both."

"I didn't do anything!" he says, revolted, as the British girl comes back into the line of students waiting to get punched. He turns his head to Charlie who shrugs. "See, that's why dogs are better than humans. They aren't hard to get."

Charlie nods. "At least someone in our group can come to the rescue if one of us is in a precarious situation."

"We should give her a superhero name." Todd thinks out loud.

Not really familiar with superhero comics or even the movies, Charlie tries to think of imaginative names but comes up with nothing. "Like what?" she finally asks.

"I have no idea." he lets out. "I was hoping you could help me out. I don't have your imagination."

"I don't even know who Steve Lev is."

Todd dramatically slowly turns his head toward her. "Are you kidding me right now?"

"What?"

"Steve Lev." he repeats, pinching the edge of his nose. "Steve Lev. Kill me."

"What is it?"

"It's Stan Lee, not Steve Lev."

"Well excuse me, professional geek, if I'm not familiar with comic books."

"That's not even it! Everyone knows about him, even the ones that never go out of the bookstore." He sees her deadpan look, and chooses to save his life. "Meaning the ones that are not you, of course. You know plenty of things... you just don't have time to include comic books to your vast knowledge."

She tilts her head in a sarcastic thank you, and Todd likes to barricade himself into a comforting silence. They watch the teens struggle to fight their teacher until it's Amy's turn.

Todd tenses up when the coach throws his arm to hit the side of her head, but the girl takes a step backwards, the closed fist brushing past her red perky nose. She grabs the wrist, contorts it, slaps the coach's neck with her other hand and immediately twists his shoulder so he has to bend over to not make dislocate it. There, pinned to the ground, unable to move, he smiles.

"Alright!" he shouts as Amy lets go of him and carefully replaces a strand of red hair that had the misfortune to escape from her ponytail. "See what McGougal did? I want you to repeat it in your head until we see each other again in two days. Memorize the position and the way you have to twist the arm without breaking it. Maybe review your anatomy lessons, it can always come in handy. Dismiss now."

Amy struts to her friends who congratulate her with claps and broad smiles.

"I take back what I said." Todd says as soon as she reaches them. "You're not a majesty, you're a knight in shining armor."

Amy high-fives Charlie and throws a toothy grin to her best male friend. "Thank you, peasant."

His mouth hangs open comically before Charlie rolls her eyes and forces it close with one finger underneath his chin.

"Okay, I agree to the fact that I spend too much time with Charlie..." Amy begins and her friend her a 'are you kidding' look which she ignores as she slides her schoolbag and her sportsbag on her shoulder. "You are not my peasant. You are..."

"A suitor?" he murmurs hopefully while grabbing his satchel.

"A valet!" she ends in an enthusiastic yell. She slides an arm in his and does the same with Charlie's. "Now, we have your game to see tonight and – _don't you dare groan Charlie_ – and I have to clean myself because I smell like a polecat. Can I take a shower at yours, Todd?"

"Yeah, you know it's no bother at all." he replies as they strode. "And I let my stick home, so it's a win-win."

"Perfect! I feel like this evening will turn out to be magnificent."

* * *

The girls sit in the bleachers, on the front-left of Allison Argent's family. Charlie can't help it, but when she sees Allison's dad, she remembers the merciless look on his face when he had pulled out the gun and shot the cougar that night after the parent-teacher meeting. She quickly shrugs the memory off and rubs her hands together.

"I didn't think it would be that cold." she complains.

Amy eyes her black beanie and scarf. "Please, you must be boiling under all that."

"I'm freaking freezing my ass off."

"This is gonna be so awesome!" Amy lets out with a little squeak as her eyes dart to every corner of the lacrosse field already surrounded by fog. "Look, Todd's out there! Hey Todd!" She gets on her feet and waves energically, hoping the boy sees her through the mist. A little embarrassed by her friend, Charlie pulls on her sleeve.

The woman sitting next to Allison Argent - probably a family member, notices Amy's excitement and asks, bending forward to reach their height: "Your friend is on the field?"

"Number seventeen!" she points out, glad to talk to someone who enjoys talking about sport. "He's one of the three defensemen."

"Oh, I see his brown head." the woman says, beaming. Amy likes her right away. "If you want to, I'll cheer for him. He'll probably hear me, I'm quite the screamer."

Charlie squints and Allison grabs the woman's wrist, letting out an embarrassed shout. "Oh my god, Kate..."

"It's high school, Allie." replies back the so-called Kate. "I bet your friends here have some skeletons in their closet."

Allison fakes a smile and turns obligingly her head toward Amy and Charlie. "Sorry about my aunt. I love her but sometimes she's tough to control."

"Runs in the family." prompts aunt Kate.

Allison bites her lower lip, heat running up her cheeks.

"It's okay." quickly says Amy with her toothy grin. "It _is_ high school, to be honest."

Kate claps her hands, contented. "See? Been there, done that. And not so long ago, I'm not an old hag."

Charlie loses interest in Kate as soon as, when Allison points at Jackson, the woman shouts how of a hotness he is. She doesn't want to hear again how people enjoy more what they can see than what they can read in people.

"She's nice." Amy sing-songs.

"Okay." Charlie simply replies.

"You don't like her." It's not a question, it's a statement.

"I don't know her." she says.

"Okay."

Charlie can instantly tell that Amy's frustrated. So she looks down and makes a hangdog expression. "Sorry."

"Yeah." Amy sighs. "I know. You're hard to make friends with."

Charlie likes staring at the players better than trying to come up with excuses. She's not good with them anyway. Amy eventually gives up too, knowing that her best friend is somewhat very antisocial and isn't up to change.

A roar comes from the red players brought together around their Coach, who asks: "What are we?"

"WE ARE LACROSSE" screams Beacon Hills' team before splitting up on the field with the opposite team.

"Hell is going to break loose." murmurs Charlie, biting her nails.

"Cheer up." Amy says as she applauds. "This is Todd's first game!"

"He's not a very resistant kind of guy..."

"Oh, I'm sure he's hiding some biceps under all these protection pads!"

Charlie keeps biting her nails as Mahealeni intercepts a particularly quick ball. Amy stands up and applauds with the Argent family.

"I don't like this sport." she lets out. Amy nudges her. "And I don't like crowds!" she continues, really decided to sulk.

"Oh my stars - HE HAS THE BALL!" the British hollers as, indeed, Todd catches the ball and starts to run right to the blue goal. Two menacing opponents block his way and he tosses the ball to McCall, who somehow manages to literally flip a guy with sheer strength to score right between the goalie's legs. "YES!"

"Already?" Charlie says, surprised.

"Guess Todd was right about Scott's skills! This chap's brilliant! C'mon, get off your arse and clap with me."

With a grunt, Charlie obeys and vigorously applauds under Amy's watch.

* * *

"Hell yeah!" Charlie howls, her fist raised high. Amy lets out a scream that was probably meant to be a cry of victory but that instead felt like a strangled cat. "We won this freaking game, I can't believe it!"

Amy throws herself into her friend's arms as half of the stadium continues to explode in either joy or despair depending on the side chosen. A bunch of screaming girls hurtle down the steps of the bleachers and swarm around the winning team, who's too busy singing their hymn and punching each other friendly, galvanized by their victory. Allison follows those girls as Beacon Hills' players head to the locker room, and Amy pulls Charlie's sleeve.

"Come on, Todd needs his friends to cheer him!"

The girl doesn't find an excuse to complain this time and, hand in hand to not get lost in the overexcited sea of supporters.

"STATE! STATE! STATE!" shouts Troye Johnson, a fist in the air. "WE'RE GOING FOR STATE, BITCHES!"

The lacrosse stick under his arm almost knocks out Isaac Lahey as the two friends get carried away by the waves and they both duck as Johnson starts to dangerously jump up and down, unaware of the accidents he might cause with his stick. Despite all this, Amy laughs uncontrollably and Charlie opens wide eyes in front of the mad crowd. She almost bumps into Allison before they barge into the corridor that leads to the locker room, but the girl doesn't seem to mind, too busy looking for a special someone.

"Todd?"

Charlie's shout gets erased by Johnson's screams of joy, and she can feel herself boil with annoyance as Amy follows the boy's lead and raises her fist too. Of course Charlie's glad their team won, but she's not a big fan of stampedes. She's not a big fan of crowds _at all_.

They run into the locker room along half of the team that is already taking their clothes off and throwing it above their heads (Charlie sees a sock end up on one of the neon lights on the ceiling and she wonders if it will stay up there forever). Without embarrassment, Amy smiles widely as she sees Todd who's chatting feverishly with Danny Mahealeni, and immediately jumps on him.

"STATE!" she hollows, echoing Johnson who is still screaming in the hall, before she kisses his cheek on the spurt of the moment. "You made it to State! You did it!" she continues as she takes his arm and shakes it vigorously.

Charlie cracks up at her friend's excitement and puts a hand on her shoulder to incite her to calm down, but this expression doesn't exist in the British's vocabulary.

"YOU BLOODY DIT IT!" she repeats while Johnson barges into the locker room and starts singing.

Todd's smile can't get any wider as he looks down at Amy, and Danny chuckles before turning away and leaving the trio to maybe look for Whittemore.

"You can't be here." Todd says even though his grin contradicts his words. "You're not allowed to be here, guys."

"Who gives a bollock?" Amy yells. In the corner, Johnson is now singing at the top of his lungs in front of Greenberg who's trying to make himself as small as possible. Charlie laughs internally at the scene before eyeing her two best friends curiously. "It's your night! You won! You won this game!"

"Technically, it was Danny, he scored quarter half of the points..."

"Yes, but who was there to prevent the enemy team to score?"

"An hint." Charlie whispers at Todd's ear with a smirk. "His number's seventeen."

"Me?" he says, almost intimidated.

Amy punches him lightly in the arm and he groans. "Yes, you!"

"Easy, someone kicked me there!"

"It was _amazing_!" Amy continues without paying attention to his complaint. "It was a _delight_. It was crazy, it was like a real professional game – and you were brilliant! You were all brilliant – Jackson tossed the ball in mid-air and Scott was there to catch it right back – _I've never seen someone jump that high!_ \- and then he tossed it at you, and you literally _dived_ to get it and then at one point Isaac ended up with the ball in his nest, without knowing what to do and three players from the other team tackled him – by the stars, I thought he was going to die. Poor lad. I hope he's okay. Anyway, our team retrieved the ball somehow and it was Luis who scored into the goal – that. Was. Extraordinary. Remember, Charlie?"

"I most certainly do, you squeezed my hand so hard I thought my bones were going to break." replies Charlie with a genuine smile.

"I did!" Amy shouts, eyes open wide. "And then remember when this wank from the other team, don't know his name, tried to score?" She turns to Danny who is taking his shirt off without much modesty. "You blocked the ball like a pro, Daniel. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen."

Todd looks a little jealous but Danny is too busy smiling wide at her admiration. "Thanks, Amy." Charlie turns away when he starts taking his pants off. Today is not the day she intends to check out a gay man's butt. She has too much respect for the guy. Danny is like her sass mentor, he doesn't take any shit from anyone and she worships him for it. She just wishes they were closer, but since he's Todd's friend, she can work with what she has.

Meanwhile, Todd's cheeks turns red tomato and he wonders if he should drop the shirt too until Amy looks back at him with her big toothy grin and her sparkly brown eyes.

"Hurry, get dressed!" she says with a quick pat on his torso. "I'll be waiting for you at mine tonight. Let's celebrate this victory!"

They end up throwing fries at each other in Amy's room after she assured them her parents were out for the night (her parents were often absent, Charlie noticed, but she kept her mouth shut this time). Todd is exhausted but he laughs until he thinks his ribs will implode, Amy tries to bounce on her bed but she ends up breaking a slat, and Charlie attempts shoving down her mouth twenty curly fries at once until her conscience reminds her that she might choke and die.

It's only when the time to go home comes that she remembers that someone was missing on the lacrosse field. Someone important to some, someone trifling to her.

Where the hell was Stilinski?


	3. Chapter three

_Thank you for your reviews, DrewSb! It means a lot :)_

 _Chapter title: comes from Halsey's New Americana.  
_

* * *

 **Blurryfaces**

* * *

 _Chapter three - The city's ours until the fall  
_

He picks up at the fourth ring. That's a good sign: it means he doesn't want to talk to her. There's plenty of reasons Charlie can list about why he should be scared of her right now. She's internally kind of proud that someone can be scared of her (she knows she should feel bad though), but she has officially declared that Stiles Stilinski is a pale annoyance that shouldn't be handled with gloves.

"Hey" he answers, a little hesitantly.

If he was physically in the room with her, she would have jumped at his throat.

"What happened?" she asks instead, her voice strained because of repressed anger.

There's a long gap between her furious question and his shaky answer. "I, huh..."

"Don't pretend like you don't know, Stilinski. Where the hell were you?!"

She hears like a bump on the other end, and she hopes he hurt his toe against his desk. "Fu- ah, I didn't – let me explain. I couldn't come-"

"There better be a good explanation for this because it's your fault we failed this project."

"I know, and I do! I do have a good explanation." She stops pacing around the room and lets herself drop on her bed, feeling the lethargy of her after-anger catch up to her. "Scott was sick."

"Scott was sick." she echoes, not believing him in the slightest.

"Yes. He was puking everywhere, from both sides! Like an explosive diarrhea, god, I can still see the little morsels of pizza floating in the green and brown-"

"Okay, that's enough!" Charlie stops him, suddenly feeling ill. "Ugh, thank you for the picture."

"Sorry. Couldn't stop myself. That was really horrible though, you should've seen it-"

"No, and I'm glad I didn't."

"So you believe me?"

"No."

"But-"

"No."

"Will every answer that come out of your mouth be no?"

"Yes. I mean – shit. You idiot!" She actually laughs but she can imagine Stiles's stupid smirk and that makes her want to hit him in the nose. "Was Scott sick again during the latest lacrosse match?" It's her time to smirk now, and she's proud of herself.

Stiles stammers gawkily. "Huh – no. I just- had a little problem. S'fine now. All solved. It doesn't matter to you anyway, why do you ask?"

She quirks an eyebrow up even though he can't see her. "Maybe because Todd, my best boy friend since middle school is part of the lacrosse team too, and as you failed the team, you also failed him?"

It's almost as if she can _feel_ him trying to make himself smaller. It's laughable.

"I can't say anything, I'm sorry." he finally replies with a sigh. His fatigue and stress leak out of the phone, and suddenly she doesn't know how to react. She doesn't know how to be angry anymore. "I already apologized to Coach, I already apologized to my dad... Let's say I have big problems on my hands and I can't tell you about them. It's personal. Sorry."

For five long seconds, she can't believe he hang up. But he did. And she stays here, on her blue bed with the white lilys, too surprised to even move. She silently gets up and puts her phone to charge up, then gets back on the bed, lies down on it.

She stares at the ceiling for a while. On one hand, she's worried for the grade she's going to get in English since Stilinski wasn't there to present the project with her today; on the other, she's worried about Stilinski himself.

Well, it's not about Stilinski only. McSteroids is also a subject she needs to talk about with Todd and Amy. They're both acting weirder than usual. Of course, it could be nothing; she knows Stiles's father is Beacon High's sheriff, everybody knows that, so maybe it could be a family problem. That happens. Charlie herself sometimes doesn't get along well with her father, resulting in evenings where she doesn't even show up for dinner and stays locked up in her room, trying to block out the sounds with her pillow over her head. Every family has its own problems, nothing is perfect. If something seems flawless, then it's most certainly not real.

She stares at her phone where a Twitter notification lights up the screen (she didn't create an account by free will, Amy made her do it, and Charlie understands now that it's really efficient to keep up on the world news). She can always call Stilinski back. She suspects he might not answer, but that would show him that she's not as selfish or mean as he thinks she is, that she cares about people other than her friends.

Three knocks on the door make her raise her head.

Leon Zeidi enters the room as quietly as he can, and smiles at his daughter. "You okay? Seemed kinda pissed off earlier." he says as Charlie makes room for him to plop down on her bed next to her.

"Yeah, it's just a guy in my class. We were doing this Shakespeare project together, and he didn't show up when we had to present it in class today."

Her dad rolls his eyes. "So you called him to sort things out?"

"I did." she sighs. "Got nothing from him though."

His big palm comes sooth her coiled hair. "Did you threaten him?"

"Dad!" she exclaims, pulling away from him with a laugh.

"But did you?" he repeats, an eyebrow raised.

His daughter rolls her eyes. "I didn't. He got away before I had the chance. He said his best friend was sick or something. I don't believe him, but I'm not getting with him on an other project next time, or all the other times to come."

"Good." her father good-naturedly laughs. "Your mother would have showed up at his house with a broomstick and beat him with it, but thankfully you're not a witch."

She squints an eye at him. "Oh, are you sure I'm not one?" she asks jokingly.

"Unless I see a suspicious devil trap or some goat bezoars in your drawers, you aren't one, Cha."

She smiles and lets her head drop on her dad's large shoulder. "God I still have my French homework to do."

Leon looks at the clock on the dark blue wall in front of them. "It's seven thirty pm and dinner is ready."

"Yeah, I'll do it afterward, you're right."

He pats her shoulder in a very awkward-dad-manner. "C'mon, I made lasagnas. You don't wanna miss that." He stands up and waits for her by the door.

"Can Amy come over tomorrow?" Charlie asks. "She sucks at French and she'll probably need me."

"You know I love Amy." her dad nods. "Now get your ass downstairs, Cha."

"Will do."

* * *

"You know what? We're going shopping."

Amy's sudden decision tears Charlie's mind out of her French homework. She was struggling to conjugate at the 'passé composé', or that's what those madmen of French call it. She seriously began to think that they needed a new revolution for a reform of their conjugation.

"No?" she suggests, lifting her pencil from the paper and looking up from this latter.

"Yes." says Amy, taking none of her eternal bad mood. "French is dull."

"You're only saying this because they used to be England's mightiest enemy." argues Charlie with a smirk.

Amy stares into the void for a moment before nodding reluctantly. "Okay, maybe I do, but it's also one of the hardest languages in the world and when exactly are you planning to travel to France, huh? Or Quebec." she adds when she sees her open her mouth.

"French might be complicated but it's also got an immense history and culture! Look at freakin' Baudelaire-"

"He translated Poe, right?"

"No, that's Maupassant."

"Oh my god-" Amy shouts, pulling at her braids and pacing around Charlie's room. She stops in front of her friend and points an accusative finger at her. " _That_ is exactly why you need to get out of this house. You work too hard! You need to breathe!"

"At least I'm ready for my future!"

"And what about your near future?" asks Amy, now more persuasive than ever. "You don't know yet who you're going with to the formal. You don't know what you're going to wear..."

"Your skin once I'd tear it off your muscles." lets out Charlie.

Amy glares at her and goes on, taking none of her bullshit. "You don't know what you're wearing right now, _and the formal is tonight_. Seriously, a little bit of shopping is always good for your spirit. Lift it a little."

"Shopping also hurts my feet!" whines Charlie.

"That's because you always focus on the bad things, sweetie." smiles Amy, taking the armrests of her friend's chair and making it spin. One merry-go round. Two merry-go rounds. She stops at two when she sees Charlie's unhappy look. "Focus on the best things. Focus on how many shopping bags you're going to bring home. Focus on the new blouse I'm going to buy you."

"Focus on the prize." mumbles the pessimistic one.

Amy rolls her eyes, harder than Charlie ever did, which seriously impresses her.

"I'm giving you a ride to the mall." the redhead decides. She takes her hand and forces her up. "End of discussion."

"You're not leaving me there?" worries the brunette.

"Are you joking? You could accidentally kill someone."

Charlie nods in agreement and lets Amy lead her out of the house.

They hop on Amy's old Vespa, not forgetting to put on the white helmets. Amy's long braids slap happily Charlie's helmet while the girl's short black hair is safely hidden inside her own. She grabs her best friend by the sides, afraid to fall off and end up in the hospital, but Amy, even though she drives fast, is also perfectly in control of her Vespa. Charlie would rather be on a car, but she admits that the powerful wind wheezing against their tense bodies, knowing there's nothing but air around them, nothing to hold onto but each other, is kind of thrilling.

She follows Amy's advice and lets herself go, head resting on the redhead's back. She tries not to think about her french homework for a second. And it feels good.

"Chop-chop!" the British says as she parks on the bikes' parking lot. "Come on, loser."

Charlie hops off, letting go of Amy's waist. Her fingers are stiff and cold; she blows on them.

"How much do you have?" she asks while Amy hides her Vespa keys in her purse.

"Don't worry about that." she commands, which makes Charlie worry, obviously. "I have enough!"

"Okay." the brunette sighs, not wanting to show that she is, in fact, excited. "Where to first?"

"It's a mall. There's no 'where to', only 'whatever catches your eye'."

Everything catches her eye. That's the problem. She thinks about going into Hollister but she's not that wealthy and she's not going to the beach often anyway. She sees Mango, tries on a dress, finds out it's making her ass pop up too much, groans. Amy would look amazing in it but she doesn't even spare a glance at the dress and leads them to Primark.

"Did you know that Whittemore broke up with the Bee?" Amy says as she ruffles through an ocean of low-prize shorts. "Explains why she wasn't here to support him during the match."

"Yeah, everyone talks about it. I heard it almost got published in the school journal."

"It has?"

"I don't read it, sorry,"

Amy finds a shredded short with the American Flag. "Wow, such patriotism. I wonder why they broke up though. It looked like something that could have lasted for a while."

Charlie feels the fabric of baggy pants. "I don't really care. They were so cliché and so stupid. He was kinda harsh to her too."

"What do you mean?"

She looks at the floral shirt Amy's holding up in her right hand. "That would look good on you. I mean that he talked to her like she was some stupid ass little girl with cooties or like a sex slave, with no in between."

"Thanks." smiles Amy as she turns around and checks the dimensions of the shirt against her chest on a mirror. "I didn't see that." she comments about the power couple.

"Well I'm glad they broke up." Charlie continues. "Maybe they can change away from each other."

Amy turns to her, an amazed expression on her freckled face. "Did you just say something optimistic? I'm so proud of you!"

Charlie shrugs, smiling. "You were right. Shopping lifts my spirits up."

Amy beams. "So you think I should buy it?"

"If you have enough for the formal dress, why not?"

"Are you going to take something?"

"Nah, I'm good."

"Nonsense. You gotta treat yo self."

Amy ends up forcing her to buy this wonderful blue dress that looks like Alice in Wonderland's but without the underskirt and the white apron and ribbon. She makes her promise to wear it at least once every two weeks and they hurry to the waiting line.

"I'm going to find you a partner for the formal." Amy bets.

Charlie quirks an eyebrow. "You'll fail. I scare away the male gender with my demoniac gaze and tongue."

Amy pouts. "Then I'll try to make the female gender interested in you."

Charlie looks up at her, surprised, and catches Amy's deadly serious face. "Please- I scare away everyone with my attitude." she says, stammering a little.

"I'm still here. Todd's still here." Amy softly says. "The only one who's scared away is you, Charlie."

Her hands are suddenly moistened with sweat and the only thing she can think of is that she's going to have to wash her new dress as soon as she gets home. She clears her throat, and choses the only defense mode she knows: attack.

"You didn't tell Todd yet, did you?"

Amy, who was about to take a step forward as the waiting line shortened, stopped. "What?" she pretends lightly.

"You know what."

Amy stares at her feet like she always does when she feels ashamed. "He knows."

"He kn- you didn't tell him, how could he possibly know?"

"Because he didn't ask me." The British girl, who's ever so loud, is now probably considering to turn into a mouse.

Charlie rolls her eyes. "He didn't ask you to the formal because he's too scared of rejection and you know it. If he knew, by some kind of miracle, that you were possibly going to go out with Shaun, he sure as hell would've asked you."

"By the way you say it, it looks like he fancies me." Amy says like it's as unthinkable as swimming underwater in the Dead Sea.

Charlie's silence is as meaningful as a full sentence.

Amy stares at an invisible point in front of her, her face empty of any feeling.

Charlie often wonders what brought them together to begin with, and it's situations like those that she understands. They both hate to talk about their feelings. Charlie doesn't like talking about feelings at all, Amy doesn't like talking about her own.

It's not 'I fancy him', it's 'he fancies me', so she's able to avoid the 'me' problem. She pretends she doesn't feel anything romantic, Charlie pretends she doesn't feel anything at all. Different forms of angry passivity.

They both know it's going to fall back on them one day but right now they're too stubborn to do anything.

Amy gets to the cashier and Charlie has no choice but to follow her in silence. If her best friend's pissed at her, it's her fault and she's aware of that. She just couldn't shut up. Sometimes her mouth speaks way faster than her brain functions, and it has no filter.

"New Girl's over there." she declares.

Thankfully Amy plays at her game.

"She's trying on dresses." she notices. "We should do the same."

"God, the blood red dress she's holding is horrendous." Charlie says, wrinkling her nose in disgust.

"I suggest silver for her skin tone. Black would be awful."

"No one would see me in the dark if I were to wear a black dress." comments Charlie.

"Not unless you smile." Amy smiles.

This awkwardness fades a little as they laugh and walk together to the prom dresses stands.

Immediately Charlie panics. She looks around and all she sees are clothes only suited for people like New Girl or Amy: thin, almost flat-chested, small butted, Caucasian, pretty.

The redhead grips her arm and takes her to an other section of the shop.

"Okay, what we need for you is a small one. But not too revealing though, I know you don't like it."

Charlie shakes her head vigorously, and Amy shuffles through the different dresses. There's everything here, and too many choices.

"Maybe we should start with your favorite colour?" Amy asks.

"It's blue. But that won't help."

"I bet blue would look amazing on you."

"I'm not sure..."

"Let's not go for the white ones, or else you're going to be the center of attention."

Charlie sighs, feeling as lost as the day she finished the Deathly Hallows. "Look, just... try and look for a dress for you. I can handle it myself."

Amy frowns. "No, I can help you, and in exchange, you do the same for me, that's how it works!"

Charlie taps her foot twice on the ground, now awkward again. "You should choose your dress with Shaun, not me, or else you aren't gonna be color-matched for the dance."

Amy purses her small lips, taken aback by her friend's argument. "Hell." she murmurs. "I didn't think about that."

"Hey girls!" says an high-pitched voice that sounds like honey.

They turn around, only to fall on Lydia Martin who seems honestly enthusiastic. For once, Charlie can't decide if she's faking or not. Behind her wheezes Stiles loyal puppy Stilinski. Only the upper part of his head can be seen above the enormous pile of dresses he bears in his arms. Charlie briefly wonders if he works here, before she remembers she has to be angry at him and therefore not talk to him.

"Hey, Lydia!" Amy fakes a genuine smile. "How are you? How's it hanging? Going?"

Lydia doesn't seem weirded out by Amy's babbling. "Fine!" she says, all with a grin. She's wearing red lipstick today, and Charlie can say that it suits her better than the glossy pink. Her hair is fine too and she seems to have given up on the fake curls.

Maybe she used to do all of that when she was dating Jackson. Charlie could have been right after all: they changed away from each other.

"Is he your ostler or something?" asks Charlie, eyeing Stiles who seems to be half-having the time of his life half-wanting to die on the spot.

"No." Lydia answers, barely sparing him a look. "In fact, he's my suitor. But that doesn't matter; what are you girls going to wear at the formal?"

Maybe it's because they aren't at school and that no one else they know but Allison Argent is in the mall, but Lydia has probably decided to drop the popular act and talks to them.

"Why do you ask?" Amy blurts out.

"I just thought you were worth talking to, not enough of a lost cause. But you seriously need to wear something better than that." Bee adds as her glares up and down Charlie's sweatshirt. Charlie looks down at herself, eyebrows furred together. "And you, is your style always that vintage or is that just for the fun of it?" she asks Amy.

"I like vintage stuff." the British replies.

Lydia nods. "Anyway, that handbag is a killer."

Amy nervously pats her cherry-red and white polka dot purse. "Thank you."

"Can I ask you why you came to us? I mean, it's not like we're friends in real life..." Charlie asks spontaneously.

Behind the Queen, her knight lets a dress fall on the ground accidentally. He struggles to knee and get it back. Lydia ignores him royally.

"I saw you struggling to find the perfect outfit. I'm born a matchmaker."

"Can't deny that." Charlie grumbles between her teeth.

"So." Lydia says, almost rubbing her hands together with jubilation. "For you. Charlie, right? I suggest a beige one, given your melanin. That would look awesome on you. Maybe with a corset-like top... The skirt not too long, above the knees, maybe a la Lolita with a short petticoat." While she talks, she buries her hands inside the colorful row of dresses, ignores the prom ones and the most flashy ones, goes for the shortests. Charlie fears the worst.

"You have an amazing butt, so we shouldn't go for something tight to the body, that only makes it worse. I know because I'm myself gifted."

"Okay?" Charlie hesitates.

"Maybe something a little fancy." Lydia continues, not interested in Charlie's disapproval. "How's your date like?"

Charlie hasn't realized the Bee is talking to her. "What? Oh, huh – I don't have a date."

Lydia seems to silently judge her. "Okay, usually you need to chose with your date, so when you'll find one, tell him to wear cream beige." She finally pulls The One out of the mass of different dresses. It's definitely cream beige. A soft maroon ribbon surrounds its middle, separates the tank top from the petticoat skirt. Brownish flower petals strew the latter.

The first thing Charlie thinks is that she's going to have to shave her legs to wear this.

The second thing that crosses her mind is that she's never put on something that remotely looks like this and never will. It's supposed to be on someone like Lydia or Amy or even New Girl, not a petite chubby girl like Charlie Zeidi.

"You should definitely try this on." Amy suggests, seemingly impressed by both Lydia's skills and the dress' beauty.

"I don't..." Charlie stammers, feeling insecure. "I'm not sure. It's maybe too revealing..."

"You can always wear a transparent pantyhose." Lydia says, proud of her find. "It's not like you're going to bend forward so everybody sees your thong."

"You can't be sure if you haven't tried it." the British says with a wink. "An old mummy quote."

Charlie stares at the both of them waiting for her consent. Finally she sighs. "Okay, I'm going to give it a try."

Amy high-fives her and Lydia nods, a victory grin conquering her face. For a moment, Charlie thinks that the strawberry blonde and the redhead make an amazing pair. That is until she realizes that Amy's too stuck in her daydream for Lydia and that Lydia's a narcissistic popular bee who'll forget all about them once the weekend's over and they're back in school.

Lydia hands her the dress and pushes her in the direction of the changing rooms.

"Don't peek on her and don't let them drop." she says. "I'm going to help out Amy here."

"Sorry, what?" Charlie calls out.

"Not you. Him." Lydia responds with a vague gesture before disappearing along with Amy.

Charlie turns her head and faces the loyal puppy. She swears under her breath.

"Yep, still here." he says, his voice a little muffled by the pile of clothes he has to hold.

Charlie looks up at the ceiling of the mall that she would have preferred to be a sky, and asks the gods why this keeps happening to her.

Unfortunately they don't reply.

She has no choice but let the boy accompany her.

"C'mon."

He trails her to the changing rooms and collapses on a purple pouffe, putting down gently the dresses on an other seat nearby. Exhausted, he runs a hand through his buzzcut as if it's covered by sweat.

"Do your business, I'll just be here and think about the meaning of life." he says. He doesn't seem that disturbed by her aggressive behavior.

She opens a random changing room's curtain and disappears inside it with the dress. For a moment she struggles with her sweatshirt, her hair too big to pass through the collar, but eventually she manages with a grunt. She then proceeds to put on the dress after she's done with her pants and shoes, finds out she also has to get her bra off first because it won't fit.

"Everything okay in there?" Stiles's voice asks, sounding worried.

"Yeah, fine." she groans back, her mouth stuck in a scowl. "Have you ever tried putting on a dress?"

There's a few seconds of silence before... "Actually yeah, I used to try on my mother's clothes when I was a kid."

Charlie stops fighting against the skirt and stays still for a moment. "You know what, that doesn't even surprise me."

Stiles chuckles. "Weird people herd together."

She rides up the low-cut neckline with ferocity. "We don't herd together. And I'm not weird. Shut it."

"That's what you keep telling yourself. Everyone's weird." Then he says, lower: "Lydia's weird too."

"I've never seen her do anything weird, ever."

"That's because you don't know her."

"What the hell are you talking about, you don't know her either!"

"I'm in her class since the third grade!" he replies, offended.

"You know what, I don't even want to talk to you." she says as she faces the curtain. "You messed up big time with our English project."

"Oh, so you're still milking that?"

"Yes." she scowls. "And even though you had an excuse, that doesn't mean it was valid-"

"Heya Scott!"

Charlie fights to open the curtain and gets out of the dressing room. "Don't change the topic, Stili – oh. Hey, McCall." She straightens her spine in front of Stiles's best friend, trying not to look like a giant mushroom in a dress. She may not know McCall very well, she still doesn't want him to think she's a frog who believed she could become a princess.

"Hey, Charlie." Scott smiles, and she begins to understand what New Girl sees, or saw in him: he looks so much like a lost puppy with those big brown eyes, this floppy brown hair, this crooked jaw, this Latino skin, these baggy clothes that most likely hide new lacrosse muscles...

No, she's most definitely not checking Scott McCall out. She's just observing the fact that he'll grow to be an handsome young man in a few years, what's so bad in that?

"What are you doing here? It's the women's dressing room." she says, using her repulsive power to make him think she did not just think he's great boyfriend material.

He turns around, eyeing the room with curiosity and finally noticing the few stares from two girls chatting on an other pouffe.

"Oh." he says lamely. Great face, little mind. "Sorry. I just need to tell Stiles something, I'll be fast."

Charlie grabs the curtain, just to have something to protect her body in case he sees a few unshaven hair on her legs. She shrugs. "He's Lydia's anyway, you can do anything you want with him. Even torture him, see if I mind." she adds in a murmur.

Scott doesn't seem to hear her last words and looks at Stiles whose cheeks suddenly splatter with red. "No way." he says with a grin. "How come?"

"She asked me out, dude. I didn't have the time to open my mouth that she had already buried me with dresses." Stiles replies, unable to mask his lopsided smile.

"Holy shit." Scott laughs, patting his friend's shoulder. "Wow. I'm impressed, buddy! You finally got the girl! What did it take you, eight years?

"Seven and a half!"

"Lydia said you are her suitor?" Charlie barges into the discussion.

"Yeah." Stiles says and stars shine in his eyes. Charlie finds this incredibly stupid, but she doesn't voice it. "I'm taking her to the formal."

She doesn't understand why Lydia got suddenly interested in Stiles as she hasn't paid the slightest attention to him in almost ten years now, but maybe miracles do happen. She's not fond of miracles though. They prefer living in old and dusty books, wonderful books, rather than bearing the unnatural reality.

"Holy shit!" Scott repeats, before his grin turns into a wince as he seems to remember something important. "I gotta tell you something." he adds, lower.

Stiles looks at Charlie who shrugs like she doesn't give a care. "Go talk about boy stuff that is none of my business."

Stiles nods and Scott takes him out of the dressing rooms. Charlie shakes her head, murmurs a faint "unbelievable" and is about to pull out her phone to take a selfie and send it to Amy, but Stiles Stilinski's head suddenly appears on the corner of the entrance of the room.

"You look nice by the way. Scott thinks so too but he's too blinded by Allison to say it."

"Stiles!" Scott's voice shouts.

"A sec, buddy!"

He disappears along with Charlie's will to live. She wishes she had the strength to tell him to go away sooner, but Scott's puppy eyes had strangely soothed her.

She hesitates in front of the mirror, takes note of her petite figure and the beautiful gown wrapped around her body. She observes the imperfections on her dark skin and the uneven nails.

She presses send. Amy replies in the ten seconds following.

Amy -looking good, princess! where's ur prince? -

Charlie- i'm rapunzel and i'm not eighteen yet-

Amy - saving urself for marriage huh?-

Amy - lydia says that shell personally watch if you bought that dress-

Charlie - that's my worst nightmare-

Amy - Id never thought id say that but im with her this once. that dress IS awesome-

Amy - whats the prize?-

Charlie - I can afford it!-

Amy - txt me when u get to the queue!-

Charlie - I AM in the queue -

Amy – hell

Amy – im coming sweetie! dont panic without me

* * *

They make a bet on the way home. "How many years do you think it's going to take for Lydia to notice Stiles?" the redhead asks.

"She's already beginning to notice him." the other replies, clenching hard her hands around Amy's stomach.

"I bet that's going to be the slowest slow burn ever."

Charlie nods. Amy's braids continue gracefully slapping her helmet. The houses are fuzzy as they pass next to them. "Are you aware that slow burn means that they eventually end up together?"

"I'm aware."

"How long do you think it's gonna take then?"

"Give it two or three years."

"That's optimistic."

"I bet you my favorite curly chips."

"Bet taken. _You're going down_."

* * *

Charlie ends up losing the bet. She places the french fries on the tombstone, and walks away.


	4. Chapter four

_Sorry for that little foreshadowing at the end of the last chapter. It won't happen again, I promise! *winks*  
_

 _Chapter title: Taylor Swift's Out of the Woods  
_

* * *

 **Blurryfaces**

* * *

 _Chapter four – Are we out of the woods yet?  
_

Amy's right on one point: Shaun _is_ nice-looking. But that's it.

He's just an other dull man bimbo, kind of like Jackson, except he's a lot less cocky and smart and he's a brunet. He's the complete opposite of Todd, actually; not that Todd isn't handsome, but their best friend is scrawny and a little geeky. The only feature they both possess is the hair color, and the attraction to the same girl.

Charlie doesn't like him. Amy is blind.

Shaun takes his date in his pretty car. Charlie likes to think he refused for Amy to take them to the school on her Vespa because he would have lost his manliness or some crap. It gives her a reason to despise him even more. It doesn't matter whether or not she made up the reason; she feels better thinking he's a bad guy.

She's already there when they both arrive, waiting impatiently in the chills of the evening. She doesn't care that she's going stag to the formal, she doesn't care what people might think. She just wants to spend a nice night with Todd and Amy, loosen up a little, and go back home, chest filled with the beats of the music. However it doesn't happen that way.

Amy's too preoccupied by Shaun, and Charlie can't decide between interrupting their romance and hurting her friend or staying silent and hurting herself. Of course she decides the latest. She isn't _that_ selfish.

She can't stand looking at the two, dancing slowly together on a shitty valse, Amy's nose pressed on his shoulder, Shaun's hands on her waist, like they're together. They freaking aren't. They're just dates to a stupid winter formal that lasts a single night (Charlie hopes nothing will happen that night).

Amy's a manizer, if that word exists. And Charlie watches over her in the dark.

She sees Todd in his black suit, alone at a table with a Dr Pepper in his fist. She sits next to him, smiles as a hello, drinks some more liquor poisoned by Jackson's alcohol flask. She offers him some, so he shrugs and takes a sip from her drink.

"I wouldn't mind not remembering some of this." he mumbles, hands buried in his pants' pockets.

Charlie silently agrees. Her drink is cold. Her hands are wrapped around it like it can keep her warm. She just needs something to hold on to. Something to tell her that this night is going to be shorter than first assumed. Something to shake her awake and tell her this is just a boring dream that will soon fade away in reality.

"Where's your partner gone?" she asks Todd. He shrugs.

"Off with some guy. Don't know him."

Charlie silently agrees. Todd shrugs once again. It's a repetitive mantra they built.

"You can always ask her out."

Todd stares at her like she's suddenly grown a second head. "Why the hell would I kill myself that way?"

"I meant, why don't you just wait for Shaun guy to be gone for some drinks to ask her for a dance? She'll say yes."

"Of course she'll say yes. She's Amy McGougal. She's in love with every shredded guy but she doesn't even notice her best friends." Out of rage, Todd stands up and decides to abandon his Dr Pepper and drown his sorrow in illegal alcohol.

Charlie wonders if she should imitate him. The truth is, she's too lazy to even get up, and she hasn't planned on ending up drunk off her ass. Tipsy, fine. Ethylic coma, no.

Instead she thinks about what Todd just said. She thinks about the percentage of truth in his words. It equals almost 80%.

Amy's not selfish, far from that, she's just stuck in an eternal daydream in which she imagines that everybody's perfect and likes her. There, shielded away from the horrendous price reality costs, she dances along with pretty princes, forgetting the knights guarding her a few feet away.

Charlie knows Todd's in love with Amy. If love's really a thing of course, if that's not just a big teenage crush. She should feel jealous. She always feels jealous when boys take interest in Amy's persona, but Todd is the only exception. Perhaps because he's a good guy, perhaps because she knows he could treat her well as he already treats her well. He may not be incredibly hot like all the suitors Amy dances with, but he's by far the most beautiful on the inside (she's aware of how cliché that sounds but she loves this trope in the books).

Sure, he's a little possessive and bossy sometimes - when Amy wasn't there and it was just Todd and Charlie, she remembers how little and shy he thought he was - but she made him a better person.

Charlie isn't sure if she made Amy a better person or if Amy made her a better person. Yes, they helped each other. They still are. Amy relies more on Charlie's advices than she did two years ago when she did what she wanted to do without anyone warning her for the consequences to come. On the other side, the British girl got to help Charlie getting out of her comfort bubble; she made her get out of the house more, meet new people, go to parties (she never did go to parties before, it looked like something dangerous with liquor and drugs and boys judging your curves), explore the world.

Except Amy only explores dreamworlds.

Wonderland is shit, Charlie thinks. It's full of nightmares and grinning mad cats and drugged caterpillars. It's not a place you want to be stuck into. She knows it, she read the original book, and it doesn't seem to be extraordinarily fun to Alice.

"I should've been named Alice." Charlie thinks out loud.

"What?"

She looks up, sees Todd handing her a poisoned drink. "Just thinking." she says, taking the paper cup.

"Aren't we all?" he mumbles as he takes his previous seat next to her.

A long moment of silence passes, during which Scott McSteroids gets caught by Coach Finstock for dancing with Danny - the teacher lets go of his prey as soon as he got it though as everyone immediately wonders if he's being homophobic - and Charlie takes little sips of her drink, slowly feeling the familiar tingling of the heat growing inside her.

McSteroids finally gets his dance with New Girl. Everything seems to end well for him. Charlie's envious.

In the corner, Matt the photographer takes a few pictures of the different couples, probably to pin them in BH's weekly journal. He's going to get well paid for the Stiles and Lydia odd bond, for sure, especially since the rumors that Lydia might try to take her revenge on Jackson after their violent breakup turned out to be true. Thankfully he does not wander around Todd and Charlie. He still fears the girl after she's threatened to smash his camera and throw it down the river as he was trying to snap a random picture of her.

"I want to go home." she murmurs. The fire in her stomach hurts her now. She feels like she could throw up.

"Yeah." he replies weakly. She looks at him and sees his stare transfixed by Amy's thin figure. For her instance, she can't even look at her best friend. It's only going to wake up the monster in her belly.

"I don't get it." he says. "Am I not doing enough?"

"You're doing plenty." Charlie answers. Her mouth feels like she's got gum stuck in it.

"There was only one girl." he goes on. "I never had anyone before. My mother broke up with my dad when I was three, so my dad had this plan, to make me the man he was, but I never complied. I was never like him, so I'm his disappointment. And I'm his only son." Charlie listens, her moistened eyes glued to the dancing redhead in the middle of the gymnasium, so perfect in her white dress, so untouchable she could be a thousand stars away from them and it would be the same story. "I failed my dad. I'm failing Amy now. The only thing I really have is my dog and my computers. Don't take it wrong, I love my Trojan dog, he's the sweetest pet in the whole world, but that's a very small reassurance for such a big fuckup."

He looks away from Amy and stares at Charlie, who feels like he's seeing through her.

"I see the way you look at her." he slowly says, his voice far away from this place but still very clear in the crowd. "The same look is on my face when I see her standing in the hallway, laughing at one of Isaac's stupid jokes."

"You're drunk." Charlie points out without conviction.

"I'm tipsy, maybe I drank a little too much, but I still know what I'm saying." he replies harshly. He closes his mouth for a moment, and 'Not just a Girl' by She Wants Revenge is played. It's incredibly cheesy. He opens his mouth again, and the glimmer in his eyes is nothing but alcohol's fire. "You like her too." His voice has lost its darkness and it seems like he's about to fall asleep on the spot. "It's okay though. That means I'm not alone, you see? We're in the same boat. The same Titanic. And it only just hit the iceberg."

Charlie feels like crying. She doesn't.

"You want to dance?"

He considers her open hand a second and takes it, stands up. She leads him to the dance floor, where they meet Lydia and Stiles, Danny and Axel, Josh and Sydney slowly dancing together. He puts both of her hands on her waist, she wraps her arms around his neck, she drops her head on his chest, he tilts his chin on her hair. She feels like she could open her mouth but she knows he won't say anything back. So instead she choses humor.

"We're kind of like Harry and Hermione."

She feels Todd's surprised chuckle vibrating at the base of her crane. "What?"

"You know. I'm the bookworm. You're the... malnourished guy with tangled hair."

"That would make Amy Ron."

"The hair color."

"I didn't know Harry wanted to get it in Ron's pants."

Charlie can't hold back the laugh that escapes her lips. The loud music covers it quickly.

"Yeah, well... Maybe imagine that Amy's not Ron, but Ginny. After all, Harry gets the girl at the end."

She feels Todd smile more than she sees it, in the way his Adam Apple bobbles. "But what about you?" he asks, suddenly serious, if a little groggy.

She plays dumb. "Oh, well, Hermione enjoys the quiet atmosphere of the place filled of Earth's most dangerous weapons: the library."

"Charlie. I know you since we're twelve. You're the Hermione to my Harry. We're like brother and sister."

Charlie runs her tongue over her lips, looking down at her feet in a very Amy way. "I still have to find a Krum." she answers slowly. "But for now, I'm going to pretend to like loneliness for a while."

 _\- and you can say anything, you can say anything, and you can say anything to me -_

...shouts the amp before the song finally ends.

She takes the hand that was on her waist in her own and squeezes hard. The song shifts, and promises to be a pogo.

He doesn't really seem to be up to jump around like a kangaroo (neither is she, really), but she does know that it would do them both good to just let themselves go. It's like punching into a pillow when you're frustrated. It's less violent than actually hitting someone, and it's as useful.

She doesn't know the song, and she probably won't remember its title tomorrow; she lives in the moment, never lets go of Todd's hand to remind herself that she isn't alone in this hell.

She steps away from him, but doesn't let go of his hand. "You coming? It's burning in here."

They head to the door leading to the night outside to find a distraught Jackson Whittemore, staring at the floor like a kid who got caught hand in the sweet jar. He doesn't smell like Hugo Boss anymore; he's sweating stress through every pore.

"You okay?" Todd says, almost stumbling into him. After all, the prick's still his team captain, Todd is allowed to care for him.

Jackson looks up, apparently not expecting to see someone here. "I'm fine." he replies harshly.

"We'll leave you at looking at your Gucci then." Charlie snaps.

Todd looks at him one last time before she pulls him away into the night.

They are bitten by the cold air, sharp in comparison of the boiling energies swimming in the gymnasium. Charlie watches her breath fly out of her lips in a tiny cloud.

"Hey, look." Todd suddenly laughs, all memory of a stressed out Jackson vanished from his mind at the sight of Scott and Allison in a full making out session between the yellow school buses. "It looks like they made up apparently."

Charlie can't help but smile. She winces afterward for good measure. "We better give them the privacy they need. It stinks like teenage hormones in the area."

He chuckles as they disappear behind the gymnasium, away from the buses and the exhalation of sex, to sit on an abandoned bench.

Charlie is glad she decided to wear those pantyhoses finally. Her arms are covered in goosebumps and she desperatly needs warmth.

From where they are, they can still hear distinctly the music pouring out of the ballroom. For the moment, it's an old Lady Gaga song. She imagines Amy dancing on Extraterrestrial with Shaun. She damns her imagination.

"I'm literally turning into an icecube." declares Todd on the spurt of the moment. "When I'll turn back, I'll have the real Peggy Carter by my side, please."

Charlie snorts, barely understanding the reference. "You tell me! I'm in a short dress with nothing else but panties and high heels."

"I can give you my tie." he suggests selflessly.

"Oh, how kind of you."

He snorts again, the fire of alcohol still raging in his stomach. He runs a hand on his face. "Damn I'm so tired. Like, I could just lie down and that'd be it, pick me up tomorrow."

"On my bike?"

"Don't care. I'll be hungover then. I'll probably don't remember it."

"Will do then."

"Thanks. You're my best bro." He bumps his fist against hers and lets it drop lazily on his knee, his motions more slow and badly coordinated than usual. Charlie finds herself trying to decipher the different kinds of black in the dark surrounding them, up until he begins to talk about something she thought they were over with. "You know, I find it amazing how, despite the fact that we have this enormous crush on the same girl - it's just so cool that we're still friends. That we don't fight like in those stupid tv shows with those stupid love triangles."

She choses to stay silent. Partly because she doesn't know what to reply, but also because everything is already said.

"But it's shitty at the same time, you know." he continues. Maybe he doesn't care if she doesn't want to hear what he has to say, but he pours his soul anyway. "Because even though we don't fight now, we're doomed to be raised against each other later. And if Amy doesn't notice either of us, then we're both miserable. Three scenarios and every time there's one of us who ultimately ends up losing."

The darkness is opaque, too opaque to even discern a silhouette. The birds have gone to sleep a long while ago, so have all the insects. Them humans are probably going to let themselves fall into Morpheus's gentle embrace soon too, letting the night be guarded by monsters and fallen saints.

"In drama class, we call this a tragedy." she murmurs.

She doesn't know if he heard her nor does she look at him to inspect any sign of understanding in his features.

She shivers. Her poisoned drink from earlier has done nothing but increase the strength of her headache.

The warm lights coming out of the gymnasium's windows lighten their faces, otherwise they would've been part of the night as well.

"Maybe we should get back inside." she proposes. Todd, whose head was starting to fall on his chest, nods. "We're going to catch a cold."

"Agreed." he snores. He grabs her hand and she helps him get up, slides an arm around his shoulder so he can tumble to where his car is parked. She thinks about getting him home and abandon her bicycle here, but on the other hand, she doesn't have a driver license yet and she doesn't want to risk an accident.

"How much did you ingest?" she groans. He's leaning his dead weight on her and she doesn't know how long she'll last.

"No' muchhh" he mumbles.

"It's not normal." she comments with a wince as he trips over his own feet. "You sure it was just alcohol in your drink?"

They are half-way to his car when they hear screams.

Charlie raises her head first, hearing them sooner as she's, in their pair, the less intoxicated.

"Whatz goin' on?" he mumbles groggily.

"Shhh."

She strengthens her grip around his shoulders and moves forward, deciding to go check out what the hell is causing those screams.

They seem male. Hysterical, but not injured. She's seen enough horror movies thanks to Amy to notice the difference between terror and pain (she's regretting ever seeing one now).

"I think it's coming from the field." she thinks out loud.

Todd looks up. "Lacrosh 'ield?"

They stumble in the parking lot in front of the gymnasium out of which a few dancers are coming out, alarmed by the shouting.

She doesn't have time to settle him against his black Toyota that a running man appears in front of them. Because of the darkness, she doesn't recognize him right away. She remembers his voice though.

"Jackson?"

"HELP ME!" he hollers, heading toward the flow of people going out of the gymnasium.

It's at this moment that she sees the blood on his clothes like dark ink, and the tiny corpse in his arms.

"Is that Lydia Martin?" people shout, while others scream: "Call the fucking 911!". Some are too busy running to their respective cars and get the hell out of here, probably thinking that whatever attacked the broken doll is still around. They aren't wrong, Charlie thinks numbly. The man, or the beast, can be hungry still.

A little crowd has formed around Jackson and he yells at them out of panic, never letting go of Lydia's body.

Like hypnotized, Charlie abandons Todd's drugged form against the car and walks, slowly, too slowly, to the carnage that is Queen Bee's mortal envelope. It's even worse up close.

Lighted by the lights of the gymnasium, an important part of Lydia's side has been ravished. Her beautiful strawberry blonde hair is moistened with red, her perfect face is splattered with hemoglobin. Her eyes are thankfully shut, but Charlie can imagine that if they were still open, they would have looked like dead fish's. Blank. Staring at the nothing in front of them, the image of her aggressor printed on her retina.

She smacks a hand on her mouth. No matter how hard she tries, she can't look away from Lydia Martin's lifeless body.

An ambulance arrives five minutes later. They have the time to look at the grass darken with blood underneath Lydia and Jackson.

"What happened?" Charlie asks once they took her and the police sirens start screaming on their way to the school.

"Nothing." Jackson says. Silent tears stream down his Ken doll cheekbones.

She looks up to him, a crease of disgust twisting her mouth. "You're usually a better liar."

He stares down at her with such hatred she has to step back. "Shut the fuck up, Zeidi. You have no idea what I just went through."

She can't help but open her mouth, bewildered. "It's amazing how self-centered you are." She's supposed to walk away now, but she doesn't even though he keeps looking at her like she just spat on his father's grave. "Is she going to be alright?" she asks, afraid of his answer.

He looks away, turns his head toward the police cars that are stopping in front of them. "I don't know."

* * *

It's past midnight when the Beacon Hills' county releases them. After a few questions, they had started to understand that all the answers were the same, so they plan to send some of the few most traumatized students to the hospital, including Jackson. Charlie isn't part of the few thankfully.

"Call your parents." one of the officers, whose badge declares he's called Strauss, says to her. "We can't have you roaming around a potential crime scene, especially if you drank." He sees the look on her face, and adds: "Not so long ago I was your age too."

She nods obediently and Strauss steps away, probably to repeat the same thing to Sydney who's shivering against Josh.

Charlie doesn't have her phone on her. After all, dresses rarely have pockets, and that's something that should be dealt with quickly.

Todd has one though. She hasn't seen him since she saw Lydia bleeding out in Jackson's arms.

"Oh shit." she mumbles, finally realizing that she left him on his own, out cold, against his car. She doesn't even know if the police found him. Blaming her own stupidity, she slaps her forehead. "God dangit!"

She runs, stumbling slightly because of the alcohol in her system she's been trying to ignore, to the place where she settled him down; and of course she finds nothing but his Toyota. That's when she starts to panic.

She yells his name. Hears no answer.

He's probably knocked out somewhere, she thinks. She hadn't realized how much he had drank, she should've known he was really intoxicated. He's usually honest, but not that heart-telling. She should've known. Why hadn't she?

She turns around, looking for him in the shine of the cars' lights. One merry-go-round. Two merry-go-round. She sees black butterflies before-

Amy stops her at three, right when she's ready to call the cops.

"Charlie!" the redhead cries out as she dives into her friend's arms. "I couldn't find- I didn't know where- where you were- I thought the same thing that attacked Lydia attacked you too!" She squashes Charlie against her chest and the brunette can't help but hug her back, on the verge of tears. "Don't ever do this to me again. Don't leave me alone, okay?"

"You weren't alone." Charlie speaks, squeezing her as tight as she can.

Amy looks down at her, her eyes moistened. "He's just Shaun, he's never going to replace my best friend. Why would you think that?"

Charlie feels an immense weight disappear from her shoulders and suddenly she's able to breathe again; that is until she remembers _him_.

"Todd-" she manages to say between two sobs. "I left him on his own- I don't know where he's." She gets away from Amy's powerful grip (she's doing Krav Maga after all) and numbly walks to the policemen.

Amy stops her halfway. "What are you doing?" she whispers.

"I should tell them that Todd's missing." Charlie repeats what's been on her mind.

"No no no, you can't." stammers her friend, and these multiple negations come out of her mouth in white puffs. "I know Todd's been drinking, Shaun told me he himself poured hardcore alcohol in his drink."

"The fuck?" Charlie shouts, now perfectly awake. "He drugged him on purpose?!"

Amy seems as angry as she is. "He said he just wanted him to have a good time as he seemed pretty bored - anyway, it doesn't matter now, because Shaun left-"

"Without you?!"

"I dumped him, Charlie, as soon as he told me what he did! It's over."

Charlie looks at Amy, really looks at her. And her best friend has never looked so betrayed and miserable.

She nods. Smiles. Tries to pretend that it's going to be okay. Then goes back to normal.

"We can't tell the cops because they're going to think he got drunk on his own. Plus he's underage." she understands.

"Exactly."

"Awesome. Also I may have drank some of the thing your boyfriend poisoned, so I may or may not be very sober."

Charlie tries to give her some as she smiles, but it comes out more wrong than anything. Amy's mouth twists in a way she hasn't seen in a very long time.

"He's _not_ my boyfriend." she hisses, closing her hands into shaky fists. "He's not even my _friend_."

Charlie nods, and breathes out slowly. "That's good." she manages to say. "Very good. I always had a bad feeling about him anyway."

Amy looks down at her feet and chuckles humorlessly. "You always have a bad feeling about all the guys that take interest in me." she murmurs.

But Charlie shakes her head. "No. Not all of them."

Amy looks up, meets her stare, smiles quickly and tightly. She takes her Charlie's hand, just to know that this one is not going to leave her.

"Todd's probably still around." the brunet says. She's never been that optimistic before, but if she tries hard enough, her wishes can eventually come to not be vain.

"We're in former dresses." whines Amy.

Charlie squints, trying to remember something as her thoughts are currently a little blurry. "Don't you have peruvian ponchos in your trunk?"

"I came in Shaun's car." Amy reminds her with an annoyed pout.

"Of course you came in this fucker's stupid car."

When Amy's cross, she has the tendency to speak with an English accent more prominent than ever; when Charlie's pissed, she's used to curse like a trooper.

"I can't believe the shit that is happening right now." she continues, pulling at her hair in anger.

"Okay, we're going to find him. Now." Amy says as she takes Charlie's bare forearm. "I don't want his dad panicking, do you?"

Just thinking about Todd's father makes Charlie shiver, and not because of the cold this time.

That's how they end up, around one in the morning, searching the woods behind the lacrosse field for a clue that would eventually lead to Todd Wells.

"We should track his phone." Amy proposes as she stumbles upon one of the many roots.

"Great idea." says Charlie, voice filled with sarcasm. "The only problem is that Todd's the computer genius here. But oh, how unfortunate! Todd's not here!"

Amy doesn't have the strength to complain anymore. She just walks, until her long legs get caught in a fern again. "Bloody hell!"

"Watch where you're going." advices Charlie, giving her a hand.

Amy's so exhausted she doesn't even remember how to walk. The excitement during the ball has been banished by the terror at the sight of Lydia's bloodied form, and the stress of the police's interrogation.

Now she just wants to go home.

In an other scenario, she would have loved a walk in the woods at night. However there was real danger behind all this, and repercussions if they didn't find Todd.

Charlie feels the same, and she hates how she trips over every little thing every five seconds. She looks at her feet, and mixes the right and the left. At one point, she thinks she's going to get crazy as at every little shake of her head her vision just gets more blurred.

"This idiot could have had the time to find his way home by now." she groans as she doesn't notice a threatening branch and gets painfully hit on the forehead.

Amy, phone out to light their path, silently agrees. "I'm gonna kill Shaun." she decides.

"Then I'm going to team up with you."

"The more the merrier. This wanker made this happen."

Charlie smiles to herself.

"And how do you plan on taking him?" she adds to distract them from the temperature, the possible killer in the woods, and the terrifying reminder that she's going to wake up with an horrible headache tomorrow.

Amy pushes a vicious plant from her way with her heel. "Sneakily. Pretend I'm not furiously cross at him at a murder level, and bitchslap him. And yell that he's a cheater, a drug dealer, an egocentric bastard, an irresponsible asshat that deserves nothing but to get bitchslapped several times in a row, all that in the hall so everyone can witness."

Charlie's impressed. "This makes me love you more." she blurts out without really thinking.

Amy chuckles. "I know. Love you too."

Charlie doesn't have the time to react to her love letter (when she thinks about it later, she thinks that it was most probably a platonic love letter. Best friends tell that they love each other all the time). None of the two girls really have the time to do anything actually when the woods break in front of them, and a terrified figure with erratic movements crashes on Amy with a shriek. The redhead screams like she's being decapitated with a blunt axe, pushes the person away, gets back on her feet, her dress damped and dirtied by the humidity of the ground.

"Oh my god, Todd! What the bloody hell on earth?!"

Charlie laughs, her survival instinct killed by the fire inside her, and runs to the poor boy who's panting on the ground. When Amy orientates the light of her phone on him, they can see his eyes. Blood shot, open wide. It looks like he's been through his worse nightmare. His once perfect black suit is torn at some places and he's got a scratch on his left cheek, slightly bleeding.

Charlie stops giggling and thinks that's enough cardiac arrests for one night.

She crouches in front of him. "Todd." she whispers worriedly, seeing that he's obviously in shock. "Are you okay?"

She thinks about getting him a blanket as he's literally shaking uncontrollably. Unfortunately the girls themselves only own their formal dresses.

"He's obviously not okay." Amy says as she crouches next to Charlie and runs her hand over Todd's face, swiping away the drops of fear on his forehead and the tears on his cheeks and chin.

"I saw-" he manages to say, gripping Amy by her skirt like it's his anchor and he's about to drown. "I saw-"

"Shhh. It's okay." she murmurs, gently caressing his hair. "Help me get him up." she says to Charlie who obeys.

They take one arm each, and he finally manages to stand on his own, if a little drunkly.

"I shaw mawns'ers." he manages to say. His pronunciation is terrible though, and the girls don't understand him at first.

"What is it?" says Amy.

"A f-fight." he precises as his gaze wanders erratically. "With rifles. And v-vampires."

"Wait, what?"

"There were three girls." he continues, showing two fingers. "Allison Argent was there too- she was trying to k-kill the vampires!"

Amy looks at Charlie worryingly but the brunette is as lost as she is, if not more.

"I am so going to kick Shaun's ass." the redhead groans.

"Come on, let's get you home." Charlie says with her best mother voice. Unfortunately, it comes out like a weak squeak three octaves higher than intended.

When she tries to get him to walk, he stops her by gripping harshly both of her arms. She winces with pain.

"No you don' ge' it." he murmurs, eyes darting from behind Charlie to Amy. For a moment, he looks like a lunatic who just got out of psych jail. "They're s-still here. They could att-tack, any moment now-"

"And that's why we're going to take you home." Charlie replies, faking a trembling smile. Amy continues to smooth Todd's wet hair. Now that she's closer to him, Charlie notices that he smells like a wet dog. She's not particularly fond of that smell. "And give you a well deserved bath." she finishes, her nose crunched with disgust.

"What she said."

"But-" Todd tries to argue.

"Shush it!" Amy silences him with an imperial finger.

When she checks the time on her phone, she's surprised to see that it's not one in the morning, but three.

"Okay. We're going to use this old trunk as a checkpoint." she says, taking charge. "We came from... the south west?"

"We should look for Venus." Charlie indicates, suddenly remembering something useful, and Todd rests all of his drunk weight on her shoulder. "We're all tired here, so try not be that of a burden!" she murmurs angrily.

Todd straightens his spine as much as he can without pathetically losing his balance.

"I think I found it!" Amy says, perched on the trunk. "The brightest star, right?"

"Yep!" Charlie giggles. Amy jumps off the chopped down tree and comes help her friend with Todd.

"Am I a burden?" he says with a terrible pronunciation. When the girls look at him, he seems devastated.

"No." Charlie immediately replies, feeling guilty. "Of course not. You know I didn't mean it."

"But you said it anyway." he doubts as they lead him out of the little clear around the trunk.

"Most of the words that come out of my mouth, I don't mean them. I don't even know what I'm saying right now to be honest, the flow just keeps coming out of my mouth and I can't stop it-"

"Yeah. You gotta see through the mask." Amy cuts her as they duck to walk under a large branch. "Careful, leaves."

Todd doesn't see them and receives a load of brown leaves in the face. "Ugh."

"You say it!" Charlie laughs.

"I hate vampires." he mumbles.

"Well that's a good thing, because I think I might have a wooden pike back home. Y'know, to pierce their heart and send them back to their ugly cold coffin!" Amy says, affirming her grip around his middle.

"God I love you both so much." he lets out, head hanging.

"Us too." she replies, smoothing his hair again. "Us too."


	5. Chapter five

_This is more of a filler chapter. I just wrote two chapters loaded with... plenty of things that I won't spoil, so it's normal if the action's kinda slow for now :) Thanks for the reviews and the follows! They all make my day.  
_

 _Chapter title: 10cc, Hospital Song (okay I don't like the song, I only picked it for the lyrics lol)_

* * *

 **Blurryfaces**

* * *

 _Chapter five – Nobody brings me flowers (I've been out for hours)_

Fortunately the formal took place a Friday, so they don't have to crawl to school the day after seeing as they went to bed around four in the morning.

Charlie told her dad everything when she arrived home after Amy dropped her off quite illegally with Todd's car, promising to look after the knocked out boy. Well, not everything. She didn't mention the vampires because that would lead to the drinking, and they're still underage. Her father wouldn't approve of this kind of behavior. She just explained that he got lost in the woods when he wanted to look for a corner where he could piss. It was far from glamour, but it was the first excuse that popped up in her mind.

That really does not encourage Charlie to get drunk, ever again.

Her dad wakes her up too early for her liking. She stands up with her head pounding mercilessly, and swallows down two after-hangover pills. She feels like her tongue's inflated and she almost can't feel the taste of her morning toasts.

She gets dressed as fast as she can and gets to Amy's by foot, as she unfortunately had to leave her bicycle at the school. The redhead welcomes her with a giant yawn and enormous bags under her eyes.

"Please tell me you feel like hell too." she groans, allowing her inside.

"I'm great, I jogged on my way here."

"Really?"

"No, I almost threw up on my breakfast."

"Thank god."

Amy puts a hand over her mouth to hide an other yawn. Charlie guesses Todd kept her up all night.

"I'm definitely going to murder this bloody shav of Shaun." the pale-skinned girl mumbles as they go up the stairs.

"Not in that state." warns Charlie.

"Alright, I'll murder him when I'm done banging my head on the walls to put myself to sleep. I'm almost certain he drugged my drink too. Sick bastard!"

She drops herself on her bed and Charlie shuts the door behind her.

"Where's Todd?" she asks, her eyes adjusting to the darkness of the room.

"Puking his brains out in my loo. He's been doing that since he woke up, around seven."

"No, I'm done." mumbles the boy as he choses this moment to appear, face as white as a sheet. "No hang on." he hastily locks himself back into Amy's private bathroom. A few seconds later, he reopens the door with a cringe of disgust. "Okay I don't think I'll be able to go to class today."

"It's a shame." Charlie replies passively, arms crossed.

"Today's Saturday." Amy groans, burying her face in her sheets. Todd lets himself drop on the floor, back against the wall. "Your butt's fine."

"Thank you." he murmurs, trying his best not to throw up on Amy's favorite carpet. "Yours is good too."

Charlie bites her lower lip so hard to not laugh that she almost makes it bleed and Amy stares at Todd like he's suddenly grown a second head.

The ex hacker finally realizes his mistake after a good ten seconds of awkward silence. "Holy frick." he says without much meaning. "Sorry. I say whatever finds its way into my brain. Gonna hide my embarrassment and puke bile now."

They watch him go. Glance at each other. Explode in laughter both at the same time.

"Oh my god, I think I really like him hangover. He's so more fun!" Amy says as she wipes a tear.

"Trust me, he's a lot of fun sober too." Charlie replies, smiling still.

"No, he's always so... serious. Seems like he's got a stick up his arse."

Charlie suddenly stops smiling. "You're wrong." she says more harshly than she first intended. "It's just the way he is with you."

Amy's laugh dies in her throat and her happy expression slowly fades. She blinks in confusion. "What?"

"That came out wrong." Charlie quickly says, ashamed of herself for spilling out something so important. "Forget it."

"No." Amy's frown deepens, and she suppresses an other yawn by some kind of miracle. "No, I don't get it. Why does Todd seem so out of himself when he's with me? Why does he seem so sad when I'm around?" She looks so betrayed at that moment, so desperate, and she probably blames herself for something she hasn't done; her best friend has to say something.

Charlie swallows, and fakes a quick smile. "Because you remind him of what he'll never have." she answers quietly.

Before Amy has the time to figure out her words, Todd reopens the door and stumbles in the room. "Okay, I sobered up." he manages to say. When he falls on the bed right next to Amy, he shakes the water off himself like a wet dog. The redhead lets out a yelp of surprise when more than a few droplets land on dry self.

"What did you do?"

He puffs, apparently exhausted and looking for a nap. "I took a quick cold shower. With my clothes on."

"Why by the stars would you do that?"

"I forgot I had them on, it's not my fault!" he cries out, immediately regretting it when his and the Charlie's ears ring painfully.

Amy sighs and gets up. She grabs a shower cloth from her bathroom and starts cleaning Todd's face and shuffle his already messy hair. Once she's done, his cheeks are bright red and he's got a mass of brown cowlicks on his head, which isn't much different from his usual disheveled appearance.

"Okay." she huffs as she covers her head once more with one of her two purple pillows. "What happened yesterday?"

"Huh?"

"Vampires." Charlie reminds him as she stretches on the floor, too tired to get up. They all look like they just had an all nighter: one lying down on the carpet, the other buried behind a pillow and the last on the bed, barely able to keep his spine straight.

"Huh?" he repeats as his back fails him and he lies down, his arm touching Amy's hair.

"You know what." Charlie scolds him. "You got lost in the reserve and found a nest of pissed off vamps."

"I did?" he says, more tired than surprised.

"Yes, you did." mumbles Amy's voice, hidden underneath the feathers. "And we were freezing. One more minute out there and we were gonna turn into Captain America."

He looks at her droggily. "Wait, you could have had enhanced strength?"

Amy kicks the sheets with her foot and Charlie groans outwardly. "I think we can both agree to say that he's really stupid when he's hungover."

"You really don't remember what you saw?" asks the British who finds this situation particularly odd.

"No." he frowns. "Sorry."

Charlie claps her hands. "How convenient. My turn to puke now."

* * *

They continue to ask him about the vampires until he can't bear the interrogation anymore.

"I don't remember anything, okay?" he says, exasperated. "I was drunk off my ass. Whose fault is that?"

"Oh don't worry, he's gonna pay." promises Amy with a vicious smirk. "I wonder how Lydia's doing though."

"Why do you suddenly care?" he asks, surprised as they aren't supposed to even know each other. Todd knows Lydia since kindergarten, and even though he's never really paid attention to her, she's always been an ass to him. He was smaller, lighter than the others, easier to pick on, and she wouldn't miss an opportunity to compare him to other boys who were known to be either rich or strong, or both. Jackson's characterization summed up. Amy doesn't know all of that of course, she's only been in Beacon Hills two years.

"She helped us chose our dresses for the formal." Amy explains as she steals the skateboard from his hands and tries to get on it. Charlie takes her hand and helps her balance her body. "Hell, how do you even _skate_?"

"Years of bruises and stitches." he says, grabbing her other hand.

She manages to stand upright and even rolls a little. Charlie thanks god barely anyone takes this old road, lost inside the forest. Sure it's filled with leaves and mud but it's the quietest and, to be honest, Amy thought that if they got closer from the woods, Todd would remember something, anything.

He doesn't.

"I still worry." Amy spurts out.

Todd nods silently. "That's human." he replies. "Legitimate. You okay Charlie? You're quiet today."

"I'm fine." she says, Amy's grip leaving a red mark on her skin. "Just... thinking about what happened yesterday."

"I'm telling you both, I don't remember anyth-"

"That's not it." She hesitates a few seconds about whether she should tell them or not, but after all they've never mocked her for anything and keeping secrets usually causes damage. "Lydia's blood was all over Jackson and it stained the ground he ran on. She bled out in the parking lot. It's a miracle she's still alive."

"Don't you wonder how that happened?" asks Amy, ever-so-curious.

"What I wonder is if that's going to happen more than once."

"Well I think we should visit her." Charlie and Todd throw her a shocked look. "Y'know, to be polite. And because she's a classmate and a person who nearly got killed. Seeing friendly faces might do her good."

"If she's awake." Charlie points out.

"It doesn't hurt to go there, does it? It's not like we're drowning in homework."

Charlie damns Amy's empathy and social skills.

They end up rolling their way to the hospital, Amy and Todd taking turns, Charlie walking next to them. They present themselves to the information counter, where Melissa McCall, Scott's mother, welcomes them.

She gladly shows them Lydia's room, saying how not many of her friends have come visit her except-

"Stiles?" Charlie gasps.

He's there on the uncomfortable chairs of the waiting room with a 'get well' balloon tied around his wrist. He looks up at their arrival and winces when he sees her.

"Hey... fancy seeing you here." he says with a wave. "How you doin'?"

"Let's not start a war, guys." Amy interrupts, cutting at the foot Charlie's bitter remark.

"I wasn't going to!" she feels the need to say.

Melissa McCall senses that she should barge intp the discussion and scold them. "If you want to fight, please do it outside, but not in front of your friend's room and certainly not in my hospital. I don't want to stitch you kids up for whatever teenage mess you buried yourselves into."

Amy turns to her and smiles. "Do not worry, ma'am, this won't be a problem. Will it?" she adds while giving a death glare at both Stiles and Charlie.

"Definitely won't be a problem." Todd nods with the same smile, patting Stiles's shoulder like he's his best pal. "The situation's handled."

"Absolutely." she says. "If I feel like it's needed, I'll handcuff them to these chairs."

Todd frowns. "You don't have handcuffs."

"Then I'll lock them up in a cupboard." Amy hisses.

"No." Mrs McCall says firmly even though she seems to hold back a laugh. "Not in a cupboard. Out of the hospital."

"Of course. I'll lock them up inside my car. That I don't own. Absolutely. You're a genius, ma'am!"

Melissa had probably expected Amy to be cynical but, to her surprise and her relief, the girl is nothing but honest. The nurse chuckles. "Okay, kiddos. Just don't cause me any problem. There's already enough happening in this damn town."

Charlie waits for her departure to turn around, arms crossed, and faces a wincing Stilinski.

"Please don't hurt me." he begs.

"Charlie." Todd whispers. "Handcuffs."

She rolls her eyes at his reminder. "I'm not gonna hurt you." she replies as Stiles visibly relaxes and lets out the breath he was holding. "Not physically at least. I don't do that. That's Amy's job."

Stiles looks at Amy, who playfully wriggles her eyebrows. He swallows hard.

"Okay." he painfully lets out. "So... how come you guys are here?"

"We're paying Lydia a visit." she replies.

Amy strides over to the tiny window on the room door, and spies inside.

"She isn't awake yet, isn't she?" she understands, visibly pained.

"Nope." replies Stiles as he passes a hand over his tired eyes. "Doctors said she needed time to recover and they have no idea when she'll wake up. But best thing is, she isn't... I mean, she is healing."

Charlie has the feeling he was going to say something entirely different from 'she is healing' but doesn't speak up anyhow. After all, he has the right to own secrets. They all do. Even if secrets end up fucking everyone up.

Todd sits on the chair next to him. "You okay, man?"

Stiles looks surprised by his sudden care. After all, the two don't interact much. "Fine. I just didn't get much sleep last night and- I run on caffeine."

Todd quirks an eyebrow and scoffs. "Wow, be careful, I don't think your metabolism is ready for the caffeine and Adderall mix!"

Charlie sees Stiles's legs bounce up and down more than usual and understands that he's ready to implode with stress.

"What happened to her?" she asks bluntly. "You were the one that took her to the formal, I saw you two dancing together."

"Believe me, I'm not the one she wanted to go with." Stiles sighs. Charlie doesn't have the time to notice he totally avoided her question as Amy is already asking:

"Speaking of whom, where is Jackson? Shouldn't he be waiting with you for his ex girlfriend to wake up?"

Stiles shrugs but they all can see his anger underneath. "No idea."

"Sick bastard." she murmurs, shaking her head. "I hate this kind of guys. Guess I'll have a word with Ken Doll _and_ favorite Traitor."

"Shaun Rodriguez." Todd translates.

"What? What did he do?" asks Stiles, curious and apparently eager to stick his nose into things that aren't his problems to deal.

Amy's nostrils flare, and it's almost as if she could punch the wall. "He poisoned Todd's drink!"

"And my drink too." Charlie adds, just as a reminder that she's still part of the conversation.

"He knowingly tried to get Todd drunk because he genuinely thought he could bring cheer to his evening!"

Stiles nods, impressed. "Wow. I knew the guy was stupid, but that's a whole other level. I mean, getting drunk is my specialty but I also like getting drunk and knowing I'm drunk, y'know?"

"I get what you mean." Amy kindly replies. "He must have felt violated."

"I'm still here." Todd points out, raising a hand.

"Indeed you are, dearie."

He lowers his arm, satisfied.

"So we came here for nothing?" Charlie says.

"Don't be rude." her friend shouts. "We saw Stiles and got to the privilege to talk to him!"

"That's clearly the enlightenment of my day."

"Sarcasm." Todd says with a knowing nod.

"You know, I have a PhD in sarcasm." Stiles says to him. "But I have to say, that girl probably has two."

"She does." he replies with a sigh. "But it's hard to tell when she isn't sarcastic sometimes. She's in drama class and she could tell you that she'd love to turn your pet into a handbag, with a straight face. It's actually very impressive."

"Personally she scares the hell out of me, but you chose her as your friend, dude."

"Let me assure you that she's the perfect shield against bullies. I draw them, she takes them out with word projectiles. Piece of cake."

Stiles does an impressed pout, silently admires Charlie who keeps arguing with Amy, both of them ignorant of what the boys are saying behind their backs.

He points a finger toward the ginger one. "What about her? What's her role in your band?"

Todd scratches his eyebrow, considering Amy as she blows on a strand of her hair that had fallen in front of her freckled nose. "She's the muscles."

Stiles eyes his team comrade. "The muscles, huh? So you're the brain and you two complete each other?"

"No, Charlie's the brain." Todd corrects him. "I'm the hands." He wriggles them in front of the teenager.

Stiles squints. "Okay..." he slowly says. "I think I get it. You're weird."

"Thank you."

"You're very much welcome. You think Charlie's still mad at me for not being there for the English project?"

"Absolutely."

"I'm in trouble."

"When are you not?" Todd laughs.

Stiles looks down and does a half-hearted chuckle. "Yeah." he whispers. "I don't know when it's gonna stop."

"Huh?"

The pale boy straightens his pine and smiles at Todd. "Nothing. I'm fine."

"No you're not." the other boy gently replies, and Stiles freezes. "The love of your life is knocked out from the other side of this door and you can't even see her!"

"Oh yeah! That. Yeah. Well... she'll wake up."

Todd looks out the little window on the door. Lydia Martin's laying there on the little white bed, surrounded by pillows, tubes entering the bigger veins on her arms and a heart monitor at her bedside. She hadn't moved a bit since yesterday, her cheeks were still void of color, her lips were still alarmingly blue and her ever-so-perfect hair was now somehow of a faded strawberry blonde. Her mother, eyes puffy red because of all the tears, is holding her hand, probably hasn't stopped holding her hand since her Lydia's first operation, and soothes it gently with her thumb, staring at the face of her only child with a mix of hope and grief.

"How can you be so sure?"

Stiles pulls on the ballon's string. It bounces happily in mid-air.

"Well she has to, right? Or else there isn't gonna be anyone to lead the school." he jokes humourlessly.

Todd pouts. "I don't know, I think Beacon High can always become a democracy."

Stiles glances at him. "You're kidding, right?"

"How long have you been here?" Charlie suddenly asks, eyebrows narrowed.

Stiles looks at the three of them like he's being interrogated. "Huh, since yesterday night?"

She rolls her eyes at the ceiling. "Explains the smell."

"What?" he shouts, personally offended. "I changed clothes!"

Amy shakes her head with pity. "I don't know what you've been doing yesterday, but you must have sweated a lot." She suddenly frowns, remembering something. "Speaking of which, where were you yesterday?"

Stiles tenses up imperceptibly. "Still in the ball. Saving Scott's ass, and losing the keys to my Jeep."

"Why save Scott's ass?" asks Todd with a sceptical laugh.

"Oh." Charlie does, quickly adding two and two. "You can't remember, you were too drunk last night, but we saw Scott and his damsel slip away from the ball room to... cuddle between the buses."

"They're back together!" says loudly Amy, opening wide eyes. "Oh my god, I always thought those two could last!"

Stiles catches the balloon and bumps the innocent object against his forehead. "I wasn't supposed to tell you that, shit." he winces. "You can't tell that to anyone, okay?"

Amy's jaw falls open. "They're not supposed to be together? But that's amazing! It's just like Romeo and Juliet – oh I wish my love life was just as lively as theirs."

"Yeah, you and me both. But please, keep it a secret, I don't want Scott to decapitate me!"

"Don't worry." she promises with a wink. "I'll keep this secret to the grave, scout's honor."

Stiles doesn't have the time to thank her.

Mrs Martin suddenly opens wide her daughter's room door, and a single tear run down her sharp cheek. "Nurse McCall!" she yells before dashing to the nurse counter of this floor as fast as her high heels allow her. "Nurse!"

Stiles has instantly risen, faster than Todd, Amy and Charlie acted, and rushes to the door window. He turns toward the three, mouth open in a weary awe. He lets out a breath that he probably hasn't realized he was holding since then.

"She's awake." he says, and so he walks back to his chair and drops back on it.

Amy lets out a tiny marvelled laugh and goes to check just to make sure just as Mrs Martin comes back along with Mrs McCall. The redhead steps to the side to let them through but continues to spy as the nurse leans over Lydia with a smile. The Queen, whose face was more dead than anything barely a few minutes before, is now wincing and rubbing her eyes deprived of the usual bright makeup.

"Feeling better, Lydia?"

"What happened?" she replies, voice a little hoarse like after a long scream.

Charlie claps her hands together, unable to restrain a smile from taking over her mouth. "The Bee's finally buzzing back to life."

"Things are going back to normal!" Amy continues, exchanging a cheery glance with her best friend.

Todd taps Stiles' back. "Hey, cheer up! Your lady's awake and well. What's there to mourn?"

Stiles shakes his head, like scaring bad thoughts away. "Yeah." he replies a little too somberly to Todd's liking. "Yeah, you're right. She didn't die!" He forces an incredulous laugh out, and this action goes unnoticed by the three Daydreamers. He pulls out his phone out of his pocket to phone Scott while Todd stands up to observe the Martins and Mrs McCall by the door window. Unfortunately, the nurse sees them.

"C'mon, kids!" she grouses. "This isn't a zoo!" Without a warning, she closes the blinds of the window.

"But-" tries Amy, ever so stubborn.

"Curiosity kills the cat." Charlie chuckles.

The redhead scoffs. "I'm just worried is all."

"We're gonna see her by Monday." Todd says, trying to get her to relax. He lays a hand on her shoulder and she turns to him, a glimmer in her brown eyes. For a split second, she wonders if she should find comfort in his arms, but decides otherwise. "You really have too much empathy, Amy." he says this with a smile, not sounding offensive in the slightest, and she lets out a wet chuckle.

"It's just-" she begins, trying to find the right words. She narrows her eyes, breathes in deeply. "I know I don't know her for as long as you guys. But she isn't a bad person. She's a good person, who bad things have happened to."

A foot away from them and also a thousand miles away, Stiles looks down.

"She'll be up in no time." insists Todd, and he can't help but look at the best friend he's not supposed to love. "You'll see."

"I hate hospitals." Amy confesses abruptly, looking at her shoes. "I've always hated hospitals. I can't imagine how it must feel."

Todd takes her hand without thinking twice about it. He just takes her hand, and doesn't let it go.

"We should head out. We're probably not the ones she wants to see right now." he says to Charlie who nods.

"You'll send me a message to update me on her condition?" the redhead asks Stiles who looks up from his phone.

"Huh, I don't have your number."

"Oh, right. Well I'll send you a message to ask you how she is, I have almost everyone from the school's number in my contacts." she smiles, already walking away, her hand still into Todd's. "See ya!"

"Bye." he replies absently.

Charlie stares at him sending agitated texts to Scott a few more seconds before turning around and walking away.

She doesn't comment on them holding hands, and ignores the little ache in her chest. Instead she focuses on what isn't here.

"Don't you find it strange that Whittemore wasn't there for his ex?"

"He's a wanker." Amy replies like it's obvious. "Shame, I always thought there was some good left in him."

"When he'll die," Charlie decides firmly, "don't expect me to cry at his funeral."


	6. Chapter six

To be honest, this chapter turned out different from what I imagined but that's okay, because the following one is coming right up!

Chapter title: _Smokestacks_ by LAYLA

* * *

 **Blurryfaces**

* * *

 _Chapter six – Throwin' my soul_

"C'mon, I want to know!"

"It's technically illegal for me to do what you want me to do!"

"I just can't resist to my curious nature. I need to know if the rumors are justified!"

"Why don't you ask her yourself!"

"Because I don't know where she lives, because she might be mourning her loss and because it would be incredibly impolite of me to do so!"

"I hate it when you're right."

"I know, I love it too."

Charlie penetrates into the room without knocking on the door to inform them of her presence. Todd and Charlie instantly step away from each other and from the computer on the boy's desk. The brunette lets her bag drop on the floor with a _thump_ like she's home.

"Are you two... _flirting_?" she lets out, half-amused half-astounded.

"No!" Todd spurts out.

"Please." Amy huffs.

Todd squints, Amy doesn't notice. It's becoming a routine, really. Charlie likes routines, but this one tends to never end. But the best things always end, and she hopes this one meets a rather fast ending. She only wants them to be happy.

Charlie closes the door behind her, and drops on a chair too small for a teenager that Todd doesn't want to throw away – he hates to throw away old things of sentimental value, and Charlie likes to imagine that he teared up when his father wanted him to throw to the bin his first shoes. She looks up to the slightly ripped AC/DC poster above his untidy bed.

"So." she begins. "What were you two doing before I arrived?"

But Todd doesn't buy it. "How did you get in here?"

"By the door?" Charlie says, pointing at it like it's obvious.

He rolls his eyes in a perfect imitation of her personnality. "Thank you, Sherlock. But how-"

"Amy texted me, said that she needed me to make you give in." she explains. "So, why am I here?"

Todd opens his mouth to retort but Amy is faster.

"So Lara Da Silva sent a group text this morning to almost all of her contacts – you know how of a gossip girl she is, being Lydia's former friend – to tell me about the rumors that saw the light this morning; about how apparently our favourite Bee has gone missing and Kate Argent, Allison's aunt, is apparently the town murderer; but at first I thought it was fake, because what the hell? Lydia's fine, we saw her yesterday and she was almost back to her former self, and there's no way this town hosts a killer if you forget about the weird animal killings in the area – and, can't forget that, Lara lies, like, very often, so I didn't buy it! But then -"

"She wants me to hack the police department to prove that what Lara is saying is false." Todd sums up.

Charlie's eyes widen and she looks at Amy like she's suddenly gone mad. "What?!"

"That was my exact reaction!" Todd claims. "I'm not doing it, Amy!"

"It's just a little hacking! No one will get hurt!" Amy pleads.

"Can't we wait like everybody else for the Beacon Chronicle to publish the facts?" Todd begs.

"No, because we aren't everybody else. I refuse to be mundane!"

Charlie rolls her eyes. "This is illegal, Amy." she reminds her.

Fire almost sparks out of the redhead's nostrils. "What is it with you all? Todd, you told me how great you were with computers, you told me that you even successfully hacked into city hall when you were thirteen -"

"I don't want to do that again." he sighs.

"Well why?!"

Todd looks over at Charlie, like expecting her to help him, and she shrugs.

"It's your backstory, not mine. Personally, I think she deserves to know."

Amy looks back and forth at her two friends. "What do I deserve to know?"

Todd groans and drops his head on his desk. The only thing he manages to do is hurt is forehead.

"Okay, I'll tell her." he winces, rubbing the red spot between his eyebrows.

Amy crosses her arms stubbornly.

"I was thirteen, yeah, and I did hack into the city hall. It was just a stupid game Danny and I came up with. He got arrested, I didn't, my dad covered for me because, you know, he works there. They dropped the charges, Danny was a minor and he didn't know what he was doing, besides it was me who dragged him into this shit, it was my fault. I got my dad into trouble, he almost got fired. That's why I don't want to do this ever again."

Amy's cheeks slowly turned into a shameful red. She looks down at her cherry red Converses, biting her lip. "Sorry." she murmurs. "I didn't know."

Todd smiles despite himself. "It's okay. It was four years ago. And almost everyone forgot about it."

"But can you still do it?" Amy lets out in a rush. She winces instantly and holds out her hands in peace. "Sorry. Can't help it."

Todd and Charlie stay silent as she gets into deeper waters the more she tries to explain herself. She's almost at the bottom of the ocean when Todd, who's been trying to silently communicate with the brunette, sighs and raises a hand.

"Okay, I'll do it."

Both girls turn so suddenly their heads to the boy that their neck almost snap. "What?!"

"I said I'll do it." he repeats, like emotionless.

Charlie closes her eyes and masses her temples. If this is some stupid game to win Amy's heart... "Just a second ago, you were _against_ this idea-"

"I changed my mind, that happens."

"No." she says firmly, shaking her head. "You don't change your mind. Ever. You're almost as stubborn as Amy." The redhead snorts incredulously but Charlie rolls her eyes. "You're making up nonsense, Todd!"

He turns his back on them, trying to make his face as unreadable as possible as his fingers drum on the keyboard of his laptop, gaze focused on the black window on the codes appearing on the screen.

"Todd." Charlie says, stepping closer from him threateningly. He's trying to impress Amy but clearly he's being more stupid than anything, perhaps he - "Todd, what the hell has gotten into you?"

She just hates it when people chose to ignore her purposefully. It makes her want to smack them. She doesn't, obviously, because deep down, she isn't _that_ fond of violence.

Even Amy seems gobsmacked and stares at the incalculables lignes of coding. Charlie's patience wears out.

"Todd-"

And that's when it hits her, when she observes his eyes transfixed by the screen and the numbers and the incoherence that used to be his favourite hobby and the tip of his fingers hit mercilessly the keys

 _bam bam bam bam_

"You never quit, did you?" Charlie lets out almost too softly. "Not one second."

She isn't bitter, not at all. She's just disappointed.

He had put so much effort in quitting. He had told her that he could, that perhaps if he spent less time in front of a screen, that perhaps if he trained more for the lacrosse team, if he was more present for Amy and her, maybe he could stop eventually. He had told her. He had promised her. And he finally, with a sigh of relief, had prompted that he was finally detoxified. But he had lied, straight to her face, and she had believed him. He that hated so much lies.

Did that make her an idiot for putting so much trust in that boy? She hadn't believed for one second that he could have had stretched the truth.

She steps back from him, slowly, and his hands hover above the computer, not touching the keys anymore.

"I don't understand." Amy, sweet Amy, breathes out.

"It's normal." Charlie says slowly. "You weren't there yet." Todd seems frozen in front of his computer, torn apart between defending himself and liquefy. His silence speaks for himself. "He used to be a little genius hacker back then, until he stopped because his dad almost got fired. But you know that story." she explains, and the smile she flashes to Amy doesn't reach her eyes. "What you don't know, is that he's also an addict. He told me that he literally couldn't spend a day without this stupid shit." She doesn't realize it, but her tone flames. She is slightly bitter after all. "Before the city hall hacking, he got into private institutions bank accounts, violated people's private lives and sent threats to 'bad people', as he said."

"They were bad people, okay? Remember this guy who beat his-" Todd tries to argue.

"I don't care, you interacted above the laws, you trespassed them and twisted them so you could act as you like, you were the bad person back then! And now..."

"You broke your promise, Todd." she spits. "You freaking broke it!"

He suddenly turns his chair and faces her, his hands grabbing the armrests and his raw nails biting into the fake leather. "I've always made sure that this stayed secret and it did, Charlie! I never tried to drag anyone into my own troubles, that's why I didn't tell you-"

" _You should have fucking told me!_ " Her voice is rising, and she can't do anything to stop it; it's out of her power now. She remembers thinking that she wasn't angry. She was wrong. Guess she wasn't only wrong about her issues. "You're my friend, whether you like it or not – you're basically my only friend since middle school because I'm too unsufferable to be liked by other people-"

Todd is caught short on that one. "I know I'm your friend, and it's not that I don't like it, Charlie, why the hell would you think about that?"

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe I feel a little lonely after all, I have no idea."

(" _I still have to find a Krum. But for now, I'm going to pretend to like loneliness for a while._ ")

Memories of the formal come back to him like a storm and he lets out a heavy breath.

"Please believe me that I couldn't tell you, both of you" he adds, looking up to Amy who's staring, confused, at their fight, a hand over her mouth. "because I hate seeing the ones I care about fall because of me. Hell, it was my freaking fault Danny got locked up for twenty four hours. He wouldn't even speak to me the few months after it. It just sounded... easier to be on my own for this one."

Amy suddenly positionates herself hover Todd and stares at him right in the eye, and for a second, he has never looked so scared in his life. She shoves a finger into his chest at every of her sentences. "You don't get to _chose_ to be alone, sweetie. That's _not_ a choice to make. That _kills_ a man. You _don't_ get to be alone, _ever_ , as of now." She straightens, her hard stare scrutinizing his green one. "You got me?"

He swallows and nods, defeated.

"I didn't hear you." Amy adds.

"I get you." he replies weakily.

"Good." she says almost joyfully as she pats the brown mass on his head. She then turns her heels and plops down on his bed. "I get it, he used to think he was above the laws and that was bad. Now can someone explain to me what is so evil in coding?"

Charlie and Todd continue to throw daggers at each others with the power of their eyes (the girl confesses that she is way more involved in this activity than the boy).

"He's on drugs." she snarls.

"What?!" both exclaim.

Charlie breaks the stare-fight by rolling her eyes. "I didn't mean it like that. Todd's dependant to his laptop."

"I'm still in the room." he points out.

"You're still dependant to your laptop." she corrects.

He crosses his arms. "Fine. Maybe I am. But what can you change? Besides, it's just a laptop."

"Don't play dumb with me." Charlie says softly. "It's what hides inside it that worries me."

"I told you!" he gasps out. "I'm not hurting anyone!"

"Todd." Amy blurts out. "You were used to hack institutions but what are you hacking now?"

He looks up at the ceiling. "I'm not hacking anything – okay, I tried with the Beacon Hill's bank before it closed its doors, but that was once and I was done with my math homework."

"You hacked the bank." she echoes, dumbstruck.

"Once." he repeats as if it makes a difference. "Nothing happened!"

Charlie presses her thumbs against her eyelids. She sees fireworks but no salvation for him.

"Okay." she whispers, before clearing her throat. "Okay." she repeats louder. "I just hope you're not the reason the bank closed." She looks up to meet Todd's frozen stare. "Please tell me you're not the reason the bank closed!"

He shakes himself like a wet dog. "Oh, no. They were stealing from their clients anyway, misappropriated money. I just anonymously revealed this information to the cops who went on site to check if I was right and I was, is all."

Amy and Charlie glance at each other before both explode in very different ways.

"You did _what_?!"

"It's amazing, you're a bloody vigilante!"

Todd, of course, only memorizes Amy's words.

"I only did this once." he smiles, before frowning. "No, hold on, I also warned the local animal services when I saw Mr Johnson beat his wife's cat, but I didn't use my computer for that."

Charlie's suddenly torn between yelling at him and shake him like a tree until finally some sense comes back to him, or applaude for his bravery. Amy doesn't take the time to think too much, and almost jumps around the seat the boy's sit in in excitment. She only thinks about the good things, which can be sometimes bad. Optimism is blind.

"Cheer up, Charlie!" the redhead grins. "I want to see your shiny smile!"

Charlie drops herself once more on Todd's little chair. She rubs her hands over her face. This weekend wears her down. Lydia's accident, Lydia's disappearence, the possible discovery of a presumed killer, dead people, Todd drunk, Todd still coding... Amy being a complete daredevil... Charlie's a person who naturally needs more sleep than most and she feels like she could get insomnia from all that is happening, and it's most certainly not on her bucket list.

She scratches her eyebrow just because she needs to do something with her hands. "I don't like the idea that you picked up on your bad habits, Todd, and I'm not going to stand for you, you get me?"

He nods, once, and she knows he understands the consequences even though he prefers to leave them behind his back so he can't look at them. She understands, doesn't mean she tolerates.

"But he saved a woman's life, and people's money!" Amy cries out.

"Yes, but he also could have gone to jail for hacking into the city hall three years back!"

Amy huffs loudly. "He _could have_." she insists. "He is fine today!"

"I like following the rules, Amy." Charlie confesses. "I like it because it makes me feel comfortable and safe. The last thing I want to happen to you is for you not to be safe any longer because you broke the rules."

Amy's eyes do that horrible inflation thingy, like exactly every time she's crushed. It makes Charlie's stomach flutter, and it's really not what she needs right now.

"We _are_ safe, Charlie." she replies softly, taking a step forward to her best friend with a little smile. "We're never going to stop being safe! Just because there's been a few murders during the schoolyear doesn't mean we should all barricade inside our houses. And I'm sure Todd can hack into the police station _and_ come out of it unharmed. He's a little genius!"

Charlie can argue to that, but Todd seems pleased by Amy's compliment so she lets it go.

On an other thought...

Maybe he _is_ a genius. But then only in hacking. His grades are fine, not excellent but certainly higher than McCall's, so he doesn't have to worry about them. Sometimes he says incredibly dumb things and she almost facepalms, but an other second she finds him bragging about a specific video game he completed the night before or a new program he downloaded (quite illegally as well). He and Amy are keen on playing zombie games until late, even during school nights, while Charlie has to call them via Skype to tell them to quit their crap and go to bed.

God, she feels like a mother.

A very exhausted mother.

Amy's leaned on the desk and bores her eyes into the screen, and Charlie awakes from her thoughts just as Todd lets out a victory screech.

"Found it!"

Amy high-fives him with a beam.

He quickly searches for the keywords so it's easier to find the article, and starts reading aloud.

" 'Lydia Lorraine Martin, five foot three, green eyes, strawberry blonde hair, disappeared last night from the hospital after the nurse Melissa McCall and her father Jeff Martin hear her scream. She was last seen by her father as she went to take a shower, and seemed to have flown out the window and vanished into the woods nearby. The girl might be found with no clothes on. Temperatures will be dropping the night, approaching under 40 degrees.' Holy frick, she's going to go hypothermic!" he cries out, eyes widening.

"Does it say why she disappeared?" Amy asks eagerly. "Abduction?"

"No..." he replies, scrolling down. "They don't seem to know. Maybe she panicked?"

"Maybe she had a fugue state." Charlie suggests. "It happens sometimes when you went through a traumatic experience."

"Thank you, Miss Know-It-All."

She rolls her eyes. "I just read."

Amy turns away from the computer and starts biting her carefully black-painted nails. "It's horrible." she murmurs, on the verge of crying. "I can't imagine what she might be going through... roaming the woods naked? Can you imagine yourself in her body? She must be terrified, and freezing to death..."

"I can't imagine that." Charlie says quietly, trying not to think about a very naked and panicked Lydia.

"So Lara was right about this thing." Todd says, soothing Amy by skiming her shoulder. He turns back to the screen and searches for other keywords. "She also didn't lie about Allison's aunt."

"So she really is a psychopath?" Amy shouts almost too excitedly, forgetting the Queen in the woods.

He nods. "Apparently they're going to tell the news by Monday just like we thought they would, so it's not official, but yeah... All the proofs are there: she set the Hale house on fire, burning alive everyone in it... except the uncle who's been lethargic during six years... and Derek Hale."

"Wasn't he in custody at the beginning of the year?"

"Yeah, the police accused him of killing his own sister, who wasn't there during Kate Argent's psycopathy phase... but apparently this murder was also caused by Kate. Wow. She really had a grudge against this family."

"Why this family in particular?" Charlie asks.

He shrugs. "No idea. They seemed nice. Remember when we were kids? I forced you to go to the skate park near the old gym with me, and Cora Hale was there."

Charlie snaps her fingers. "Yes! I remember, her older brother was trying to make her learn how to skate. He was good at it. You were so jealous, it was hilarious."

Todd winces and Amy eyes him with curiosity. "What happened?" she asks.

He sighs and opens his mouth but Charlie beats him to it.

"He bet he could kick his ass at basketball!" she laughs. "But he had no idea the Hale kid was actually in the Beacon High team... he took a trashing! What was his name..."

"It was Derek." Todd admits, defeated. "And I was eleven. I wanted to impress you, you were my first middle school friend and you outsmarted me in almost every class, I had to do something!"

Charlie tilts her head to the side, the past betrayal fading away. "Ooh." she smiles sweetly. "It's so cute."

Todd desperatly looks at Amy who does her best not to burst out; it would be severely inappropriate since Lydia Martin is currently running into the woods, butt naked, and Allison Argent just lost her aunt.

"I have a feeling Monday is going to be really turbulent." she says like a promise.


	7. Chapter seven

Chapter title: _They say_ by Scars on Broadway

* * *

 **Blurryfaces**

* * *

 _Chapter seven – Let's fuck the world with all it's trend_

Monday comes with morning fog and still no trace of Lydia Martin.

Not that Charlie is biting her fingernails off with anxiety, because Lydia isn't her friend and probably never will be, but this situation is stressful and odd enough for a regular town like Beacon Hills to attract her attention. A soon to be sixteen-year-old girl can't run away from her hospital shower and escape the meticulous eyes of the policemen and the noses of their dogs, can she? Charlie is more interested in solving this mystery, to be honest.

A few smartasses from school have already put a prize on the Queen's head. The reward changes often; by Sunday night, it was fifty dollars for a glimpse of Lydia's breasts in the woods, with a photo supplement, and the prize is now up to 200$ and some for her entire naked body.  
Charlie finds that extremely disgusting, and would be extremely happy to kick a few asses if she knew how to kick. Thankfully Amy is there to help her out. Well, Amy is always there to help out. Charlie's never seen someone so selfless before.

The redhead's been sticking 'have you seen this girl?' posters on almost every lamppost, allying to Mrs Martin for this task. She had been up until late last night, knocking on people's door, until Mr Lahey had thrown her out because he had 'something to deal with in the basement'. Out of anger, Amy had thrown her shoe at his door, breaking the heel in the process, but according to her it had been worth it.

Charlie parks her bicycle in the shelter as Todd runs to her, a lacrosse stick in a hand and car keys in the other.

"Charlie!" is his first word. "I'm sorry." are his second and third and fourth.

"For what?" she asks, squinting at him. "Have you done something illegal again?"

"No, it's just... are you still mad at me? Because I can't have you mad at me."

"Of course I'm still mad at you." Charlie says lightly. Todd follows her to the entrance hall like a tall shadow. "I'll be mad at you for a while and sometimes it'll come out, but you're still my stupid friend." She opens her locker, stuffs a few books in it.

Behind her, Todd chews his lower lip to suppress an irrepressible smile.

"How many times do I have to say sorry?" he says, now sheepish.

Charlie whirls around and shuts her locker door. "Let's see... I don't want more than two, because too many apologies mean that you aren't honest. I just need you to promise me that you aren't relapsing."

Todd blinks, before smiling. "I'm not. Scout's honor."

Charlie looks up the ceiling. "You're not even a scout."

"It was a joke."

"I know. I love to complain."

"I know." Todd suddenly stiffens. "She's here."

"Who?"

Amy appears between them like an apparition with a scowl. "He's here." she says.

"Who?" Charlie repeats, absently seeing Todd's dumb smile as Amy doesn't even say hi to them.

"Shaun." Amy snarls, her once happy features obscuring. Her brown eyes send electricity, and Charlie is tempted to step back. It's not often that someone gets on Amy's wrong side, but when it happens, everyone should know that withering in a corner saves lives. "This wanker doesn't even have the brain to hide his rat face from me!" She suddenly takes Todd by the arm, making the boy drop his lacrosse stick. "Quick: how do I look?"

Todd is too bewildered to even reply, and Charlie can swear he even blushes. "W-what?"

"I need a masculine eye for this operation, Todd Wells." Amy says impatiently. "Do I look good?"  
He licks his lips, slowly coming back to his senses. "Of course." he replies, nodding feverishly. "You always look good."

Amy grins. "Perfect."

Her hair carefully straightened almost slaps his face as she turns her heels and, maybe a bit too happily, struts to where she knows she'll find him.

Charlie and Todd glimpse at each other, but before they can decide to follow Amy, the bell rings. Charlie fakes a sigh.

"Poor Shaun. She's going to cook him."

Todd nods. "It's a chance I don't like meat. See you at lunch?"

"See ya. And don't break a bone in lacrosse, toothpick."

Amy arrives into class ten minutes late and takes a seat between Sydney and Charlie, gloriously managing to avoid a warning from the teacher.

Charlie instantly leans toward her.

"We're meeting in front of his locker after lunch." Amy breathes out, wearing the smirk of a conqueror. "No one from his clique's going to be there."

"You sure you want to do this?" Charlie whispers, pretending to write something on her notebook.

Amy snorts. "I'm born ready."

Charlie's contented by this answer, but unfortunately the teacher doesn't seem to be.  
"Ms McGougal and Ms Zeidi, do you want to share your thoughts to the class?" asks Mrs Morell.

Charlie's smile withers. "We're fine, sorry."

"Dans ce cas, pouvez-vous me dire ce que nous étions en train d'expliquer?"

Charlie glares at her and Amy's dumbfounded expression makes a few students snicker.

"Sorry, come again?" the redhead asks, badly attempting to conceal her disgust toward the language.

"Je ne répèterai pas, Miss McGougal, and next time I'll send you straight to the principal office, am I clear?"

Amy nods. "You are. Sorry, ma'am."

"Bien."

Charlie lets go of a sigh of relief when Ms Morell turns back to the board and writes a couple new words they should learn by tomorrow.

They meet with Todd right before lunch and Amy explains the situation to him. His reaction doesn't differ from what Charlie has imagined.

"I think I fell temporarily dumb, can you - what?" he gasps, jaw hanging. "You're going to smack the guy in the middle of the hallway?"

Amy shrugs like it's no big deal. "I don't know yet. It depends on my mood. For now I'm good because I'm with you, but it'll certainly change in front of him, and then we'll see!" She sets her tray in front of the lunch lady who fills it with today's meal and the usual ridiculously small bottle of water.

Todd glances at Charlie. "And you stand by her?"

"I think she's right." she replies, and Todd lets out a cry of incredulity. "No, really! She's taking her revenge. He tricked her into thinking she was loved by him and then he drugged both hers and your drink. Her reaction's pretty fair!"

"Okay, but smack him? There're teachers around, and people will talk."

"Yeah, and Amy'll become Beacon High's new power woman. Guess Lydia Martin's going to have a surprise when she'll be back."

"Smack him-?"

The lunch lady taps her ladle against the counter. "You expect me to just hang around?"  
Todd jumps, like electrocuted. "Yeah, I mean no, sorry." And he hands her his tray. "Smack him?!" he continues as he settles it next to Amy's who found a clean table.

Amy chews on her bread. "Told you, depends on the mood!"

He shakes his head, still glancing at Charlie like he's expecting her to reason their friend, but Charlie doesn't and sits in front of the two.

The guy has it coming, he drugged us, she thinks. It's nothing to do about the fact that he maybe made out with her during the formal.

Todd angrily grabs his fork and shoves it in his plate. "Who wants my chicken?" he asks brutally.  
Charlie gladly takes it.

"Oh, come on." Amy says, patting his shoulder. "Don't be cross, now. It's going to be settled in a few minutes."

"Don't punch him." Todd replies. "He doesn't even deserve your attention."

Amy scoffs. "I'm not giving him my attention-"

"Yes you are. You're always thinking about him and about how you should take care of him. He doesn't deserve to be in your head. I see it, I'm not stupid."

A wave of guilt flows over Amy's face.

"I never said you were, Todd."

Charlie doesn't want to break their moment but what she sees is far too important to just let it go.

"Guys. Look at this."

Amy instantly turns her head, incapable of running away from a rumor.

"Nooo!" she gasps, placing a hand in front of her mouth for good measure. "What the bloody -"

"Lara and Jackson?" Todd says, he too looking at the pair sitting in front of each other and chatting like old friends. "I thought they weren't talking again after Lydia and him broke up..."

"There's a vacant throne." Charlie says dramatically. "And he's the king."

"This is-" Amy is suddenly unable to find her words. "I can't believe- this sick bastard!"

"Here we go again." Todd mutters.

Amy crunches her bottle of water in her fist. "Don't tell me he's sleeping with Lara right when his ex girlfriend goes missing, because this is _sick_ -"

"Maybe he hasn't slept with her..." Charlie says just as Lara kisses the corner of Jackson's mouth, lingering a little too long. "Yet." she ends. "This is sick." she admits. "She's freaking fifteen."

"What's sick is that they're both two consenting partners stabbing the back of an innocent girl." Amy groans, barely able to contain her anger. She hands the remains of her bottle to Todd before ending up turning it into dust, then she suddenly stands up. "That's it. I'm going."

"Where?" Todd and Charlie ask.

"Smack Shaun's rat face."

Charlie _has_ to see this.

On a commune and quiet agreement, they both stand up and run to follow her into the hallway.  
Amy's heels clamp the floor with every each of her steps and she's almost running at the sound of it. They trace her by hearing. Right by the corner, Todd throws an arm to the side and it almost hits Charlie in the head, and they stop, carefully throwing an eye to Shaun's locker.  
He's there, smiling wide when he sees Amy coming his way, smile disintegrating when he sees Amy and her stormy eyes.

Her right hand flies straight to his left cheek, and the sound echoes in the hallway. The second punch follows right away, hitting this time the middle of the face. When Shaun looks up after a second of deafening silence, he's holding his nose between his hands, droplets of blood falling on his shirt.

"What is wrong with you?!" he cries out, loud enough to alert everyone at a mile radius.

"The first one was for Todd." Amy pants, literally shaking with rage. "The second was for Charlie. And the third one is going to be for you to remember how of a dickhead you are-" She slaps him at his unprotected jaw and he falls backwards with a cry.

That's when Charlie knows Amy's going too far.

Todd has apparently figured that out too and he jumps forward, dashes to the pair and grabs Amy by the wrists.

"Get off me!" she cries, fighting him off.

"Amy, stop it, he's not worth it!" he says as Shaun starts whining on the floor, wiping the blood from his hands on the floor, making it all look like a crime scene.  
"He poisoned your drinks and we could've lost you in that forest, Todd - _let me go_!"

"Amy, no, I'm not letting go..."

A too high number of students dart into the hallway. Several people scream when they see all the blood on the floor that Shaun consciously spread, and someone calls for a teacher, but Charlie keeps looking at Shaun who grins at his blood, and she thinks about kicking him in the stomach, but she doesn't because Amy's half-crying half-vibrating with anger and Todd's pushing her head into his chest, wrapping his long arms around her back and forcing her to look away from Shaun's sprawled out body.

"What's going on here?"

Charlie spins around, taking a step back at the arrival of Mr Harris. Of course it has to be him.  
"She punched me, sir!" Shaun whines, showing him his bloodied nose and his red cheek and jaw. "She just came at me and punched me! Complete whackjob..."

Harris looks from Amy in Todd's arms to Shaun faking an excruciating pain.  
Charlie tries to step in. "She punched him because he abused of us both during the formal!"

"I don't even know you!" Shaun cries, pointing at Todd then Charlie with a finger that glistens with red.

"Stop fucking lying, you piece of-"

"Language, Ms Zeidi!" barks Harris, and suddenly Charlie knows it's over. He points at the three of them with an accusating finger, then says coldly, "Ms Zeidi, McGougal and Mr Wells. Detention every evening with me for the entire week, starting tomorrow. Mr Rodriguez, go to the nurse and clean yourself up. Go!"

Shaun gets up with an other whimper, and limps away from them even though his legs are perfectly functional.

"Your father's going to hear about this, Mr Wells." Harris says, like triumphant.

Todd doesn't reply and keeps stroking Amy's back, suffocating her shaking and sobs into his chest.

Charlie's hungry. She hadn't had the time to eat and hadn't been very willing to after this episode, but now that they're in class with the douche teacher of the year, she feels hunger tear a hole into her stomach.

Taking the advantage of McCall and Stilinski's loud whispering a few feet away from their table, she turns to Amy.

"Why did you keep going?" she murmurs.

Amy has broken two pencils already and Todd has given his last one to her. Her puffy eyes blink a few times in front of her handwriting before she replies, voice barely a hoarse.

"He had it coming."

Charlie shakes her head. "It could only end with us getting in trouble and you knew it. Why did you keep punching?"

Amy shrugs. The hand holding the pencil continues to shake, threatening to split this one in half just like its brothers.

"He had it coming." she repeats, writing her name on the pop quiz.

Charlie takes hers and pretends to actually care about the questions.  
There it is, she thinks. Amy's incapability of realizing that what she might do can hold consequences.  
They're all stuck there, in their own little world. Every imperfection must be erased. With the blue side of the eraser, the one that tears the paper apart.

"This is a pop quiz, Mr Stilinski." Harris calls out. "If I hear your voice again, I may be tempted to give you detention for the rest of your high school career."

There it is, she thinks again. Harris is going to lash out on his favorite victim again.  
Every imperfection must be erased, and she drops a coin in the fountain in her head just to make sure Harris leaves their world. And Shaun Rodriguez as well, if possible.

"Can you do that?" Stiles replies, quite stupidly if you mind Charlie's opinion.

"There it is again. Your voice."

Charlie's ears ring with fury, but it's nothing next to what Amy's feeling.

"Triggering the only impulse I've ever had to strike a student repeatedly and violently. See you at three for detention." Apparently Harris is feeling extraordinarily good today.

Danny chokes back a laugh behind Charlie and Amy breaks Todd's pencil. Without even complaining, he manages to ask Erica Reyes for a new one, and gives it to the redhead.

Scott glances at Stiles in astonishment, and perhaps that is his biggest mistake.

"You too, Mr McCall?" Harris asks.

"No sir." he replies as he goes back to his own pop quiz.

Amy merely looks at hers. Her hand shakes too much and she doesn't want to break Erica's pencil anyway.

"I'm going to strike Harris repeatedly and violently." she mutters.

"You aren't." Todd and Charlie whisper at the same time.

Amy presses her lips together. Her two friends wait until they're sure she's calmed down and look at their own sheets.

Charlie stares at the first question and scribbles the semblance of an answer. She knows she'll probably get a C, partly because it bores her too much to even try to study. Science just doesn't agree with her, and the little she gets is from the early seasons of Breaking Bad she used to watch with her dad, but they're not even close from creating methamphetamine in class.  
She thinks about making a crystal and force Shaun and Harris to ingest it until they have an overdose. This thought's enough to make her successfully find the answer to the second question.

"Sir, can I go to the bathroom?" Jackson asks.

Charlie doesn't look up. He could have his bladder exploding right there that she wouldn't move. She's still pissed at him for only giving shits about his narcissistic self.  
She's mad at almost everyone, frankly, but this doesn't change from the usual.  
Amy doesn't break Erica's pencil and gives it back to the girl with a thankful smile at the end of the class.  
"Do you want to do something after class?" she asks with a tiny voice as they walk out of the school.

"We could take a walk." Todd suggests. "I'll take Trojan while I'm at it."

Amy smiles at that thought. "Oh, it's been a long time since I saw him! Why not? Charlie, you're in?"

Charlie nods. "Anything to forget Harris' hog face."

Todd passes by Stiles and wishes him luck for his detention. "And get Shaun out of our heads." he says, turning back to the girls.

"Ugh, can they be more in love?" Charlie mutters as they cross path with Scott and Allison who, perched on the steps, look at each other like the other's mouth is a sweet and they're on a diet.

"I don't think that's possible." Todd says lightly, jumping from the crosswalk to the parking lot. "But hey, a little love right now can't hurt, right?"

"You always were such a romantic." Amy scoffs, grinning.

"Who isn't?" he replies, smiling widely. He gets to his car and knocks on the hood. "I'll get your cycle in it, Charlie?"

"Sure."  
They manage to stuck the old bicycle in the trunk and hop on, Amy putting on her safety helmet next to them as Todd and Charlie wrap their seatbelts around their middle.

They drive one behind the other, car and bike. Sometimes Amy leads the way, teases Todd by making her engine roar. Sometimes Todd leads the way, makes Charlie shriek when he brakes a little too hard for a red light.

He stops in front of his house for a couple of minutes, giving Charlie the time to exchange a few funny anecdotes about him with Amy, and comes back a leash tied around his wrist and a gigantic dog at the other end of it.

Amy lets out a piercing cry, and runs to the dog. He barks cheerfully when he sees her coming.

"Who's the nice boy?" she says, kneeing while patting his large head and kissing his flapping ears. "Who's it?! Who's the nice puppy?"

Trojan doesn't waste an other second to lick her face and Todd pulls him to the backseat before Amy steals his dog. Trojan tries to jump on Charlie but Todd glares at him, so he eventually calms down and enjoys the ride, passing his head by the open window, tongue pulled out.  
Amy is the first to park, in one of the very few parking spots at the entrance of the woods, in which they're used to spend some late evenings when they need quiet away from the city. Todd follows suit, and as soon as he opens the door, Trojan jumps out and shakes himself off, jumping around happily.

"Get your dog under control." Charlie jokes as she hops off and shuts her door.

"Why exactly are we coming here?" Todd asks, looking around.

"I just wanted to forget about he-who-mustn't-be-named." Amy replies, carelessly deposing her helmet on her bike.

"And maybe get Lydia back, by any chance?" Charlie suggests.

"Indeed, my dear."

Amy grabs Charlie and Todd's hand and starts to pull them towards the woods. The day is already starting to fall as winter is here, but it's like an other universe in the forest.

The trees seem to suck the light from the sky, radically lowering the luminosity. Birds still chirp but it's like all sound is diminished here. If they could still hear the high road from the parking, now it's like nothing from their past life matters anymore.

Which is exactly what Amy is looking for.

They walk side by side down the path for a while, and eventually step away from it and head into the darker woods. Trojan seems more than happy to smell new kinds of mushrooms and goes to hunt down some.

"Your dad'll notice your absence, you know." Charlie says quietly as Trojan chases after his own tail behind them.

Todd ducks to fit his tall self under a large branch. "I know." he replies just as softly. "It wouldn't be the first time for him to be disappointed in me."

"You can just tell him that Harris tends to exaggerate the facts." Amy says, looking at her feet and feeling guilty for what'll happen to him because of her actions. "Tell him that it was my fault, that I overreacted..."

"Yeah, and he'll just reply that I wouldn't have gotten in trouble if I weren't... friends with you." he lets out a little too sharply. "And then he'll brag about how he should have placed me in a private school, and all that shit. But I'm used to it by now."

Amy sighs. "I can... offer you a room tonight. My parents don't mind, they are very permissive."

"No, better end it sooner." He looks up to the crown of the trees. "I wonder what Harris is going to give us for detention."

"Todd, we're here to relax." Amy smiles. "We don't talk about this now."

"Sorry."  
They go back to a comfortable silence, until someone steps on a branch.  
"Damnit, David, watch out!"

The trio comes to an halt and Trojan stops chasing after his tail and starts growling. Without a warning, he jumps forward and disappears between the trees.

"It's got the rage!" someone screams.

Trojan yaps angrily and Todd throws himself to this noise, Amy and Charlie following close.

Three lacrosse players, Troye Johnson, Luis Martinez and David White were following them from a hundred feet and are now too busy shivering in fear of Trojan. The giant labrador shows his teeth and barks at them, and Troye tries to grab a stick on the ground but Trojan nibbles his hand, making the boy scream.

"You're a bunch of idiots - Trojan! Sit!" roars Todd as he grabs his pet by the collar and forces him to stay still.

"What are you doing here?!" Charlie shouts as Amy decides to run to Trojan and pet him until he stops barking.

David gets out of the hole in the tree he was hiding into and Luis stops using Troye as a human shield. Troye scratches his head.

"I... we were..." he says, glancing at his friends, like asking for their never coming help.  
"Were you following us?!" Todd yells, pulling at Trojan's collar and making the dog bark again despite Amy's attempts.

Troye winces. "Kind of..."

"Why the hell would you do that?!"

"Huh..."

"Chill out, man!" Luis says, making a peace sign. "It's cool, we were just thinking that you might be looking for the naked girl, and so we thought that we could find her too if we followed you, because you're always so badass - right guys?" He nudges David who yelps like he's been kneed in the junk.

"Right." David chokes out. His eyes don't look away from Amy who observes the three lacrosse players with a murder glare, patting Trojan's fur.

"Why do you consider us as badass?" Charlie asks, bewildered.

"You're the power couple, yo!" Luis says, apparently desperately trying to cool the situation. "The redhead and Toddy-"

"Don't call me that-" Todd mutters, tempted to let go of his dog.

"- you kicked Shaun's ass today! It was awesome, there was blood, like, _everywhere_...!"

David nods, his fearful gaze still locked on Amy like she might suddenly plunge a knife through his heart.

Todd turns his head around to look at Amy and Charlie, completely astonished. "I didn't - I didn't kick Shaun's ass - Amy did it by herself." he says, looking back to them. "And-"

"What is that?!" Amy yells suddenly, springing to her feet. She points at something that David instantly hides behind his back.

"Nothing." he says stupidly.

"It's a camera!" She walks to him and gives him a dirty eye, so he feels obligated to show what he holds in his hand, in fear of getting punched in the nose. "Why do you have a camera?"

"It's to take pictures." Troye says, suddenly not so loudmouth.

"Thank you, captain Obvious." Charlie mutters. "But I don't think you'd take photos of the local nature, would you?"

The three boys look like a kid caught hand in the cookie jar.

"Okay, it's for Lydia. Don't get pissed, miss." Luis replies, too scared to even meet Amy's squint.

"Oh, I will get 'pissed'." Amy says with a humorless laugh. "Why do you need a camera for Lydia?"

But Charlie's already figured it out and growls. "You're disgusting, guys."

Amy frowns. "What-"

"Coach told us that she's butt naked in the woods." Todd lets out and Trojan barks loudly, agreeing with Charlie's disgust.

Amy's mouth falls open. "No!"

"It's the freaking Queen, man!" Luis says, swallowing thickly. "Jackson told us how hot she is and what we missed - it's like not coming to see the fireworks for the 4th of July, every guy wants to see a sexy picture of Lydia!"

If Amy's glare scared them before, they're probably now pissing their pants and calling their mothers for help.

"Get out of my sight." she mutters in a low though distinct voice.

They don't wait for her to repeat and run for their lives.

Todd waits until they've disappeared between the trees. "Can I let go of Trojan?"

"Please do." Amy replies.

The dog instantly runs after the boys, barking angrily. Todd shakes his head. "The smartest ones aren't in the lacrosse team, that's for sure. Muscles and brains don't get along."

"Brainy's cool." Amy decides, hearing Trojan's yaps and the boys' cries with a twisted smile. "Muscles are great too, always come in handy when in need to save the damsel."

"I thought you weren't the damsel?" Charlie asks, surprised.

"Oh, I'm not. I'm the knight coming to save the damsel. Shall we go on?" she then asks.

Todd whistles twice, and Trojan comes back to them, tongue happily hanging out of his mouth. His master murmurs a 'good boy' and ties back the lash around his collar. He doesn't want to him to attack other idiots.

They walk around a little more, until they can see that they've reached the other side of the woods and the cemetery.

They don't notice it's the cemetery right away because of the huge crowd of reporters and media vans all around the place.

Amy pulls Todd and Charlie both down, and they crouch behind a tree, avoiding the looks of the policemen guarding the perimeter. Todd puts a hand before Trojan's mouth and keeps his dog between his legs.

Apparently McCall and Stilinski had the same idea and are ducking behind a stone angel, thirty feet away from them.

"What's going on?" Charlie asks, observing the flashes of the cameras with a furred brow.

"It's Kate Argent." Amy whispers.

"What, her burial?"

"Yes." "She's getting a proper burial?!"

"Shut up." Todd hisses.

Charlie is about to get offended but he points at the sheriff who's heading their way.  
They all let out a heavy sigh of relief when he catches both Scott and Stiles by the collar, looking thoroughly peeved.

"So that's why Allison seemed particularly sad today." Todd says once the sheriff has locked his son and the best friend of his son inside his police car.

Charlie stares around at the Argent family inside the graveyard. To her surprise, there are actual bodyguards looking after the grandfather, father, mother and daughter alone. She knew Allison's family had money, but not that much.

"Sad's an euphemism." she says as Allison looks down at her aunt's grave, looking depressed.

"Well she's learned that her aunt's a psychopath and lost her best friend in almost the same day." empathizes Amy. "Thank god Scott is here to cheer her up."

Charlie snorts. 'Cheer up' isn't the expression she would have used.

Next to her, Todd doesn't look at the Argent family but at someone in the crowd instead. He presses his lips together, his gaze hardening, but doesn't say anything.

"Well, it was fun." Charlie says, as they scuttle away from the cemetery.

Todd lets go of Trojan who gets to pee happily on a mushroom.

"Do we wander about for a little more or do we head back?" the bookworm asks. She hadn't planned to camp in the woods while getting dressed this morning and a chilly winter breeze has fun rising goosebumps on her arms even though they're covered by her sweatshirt sleeves.

"I don't know-" Amy says, clearly not wanting to go home.

Todd doesn't seem to be eager to as well.

"It's going to drop under 40 tonight." complains Charlie.

Amy seems to think about it, but she's interrupted by Scott and Stiles breaking out of the police car and scurrying away from the graveyard, passing by them by twenty feet only. Trojan tries to jump at them, growling, but this time Todd grabs his collar. Trojan keeps sniffing the air even after they're long gone, his tail sweeping the leaves with agitation.

"One of them is going to drop dead one day." Charlie says.

"Maybe..." Amy slowly says. "Until then, they're living a spy movie-like life. Pretty awesome!"

Todd squints. "It's not -"

"You know, maybe we should to this more often." Amy continues as they slowly but surely go back to the little path inside the woods. "Explore the city, discover unfound mysteries, rescue lost girls..."

"We haven't found Lydia..."

"Yeah, but isn't it thrilling? You can't tell me that this doesn't make you want to be Indiana Jones. Or a superhero! We could be vigilantes, walking around in masks and saving people, and when the newspapers would mention us, we would be called the Blurry Faces." She flails her arms around, her pale face reddening with excitation.

Todd bites his smirk. Amy nudges him playfully. "Okay, this is kinda cool." he lets out.

Charlie rolls her eyes, although she can't help it but smile too. "Where is this sudden inspiration coming from?"

Amy shrugs, joyfully scampering in front of them. "I guess I should fancy walk in the woods with you three more often." she says as she crouches a second to pat Trojan's large head.

"I think it's called werifesteria." Charlie thinks out loud.

"Bless you?" Todd says, quirking an eyebrow.

Charlie chuckles. "It's an old word, that means wandering through the woods in search of secrets."

Amy nods, smiling. "I like it. Werifesteria." She tastes the sound of the word by rolling her tongue on the multiple r. "Sounds like werewolf."


End file.
